Coach Lennox Graham off to Clemson University

AFTER spending the past 10 years as head track and field coach at Johnson C. Smith, a Division II college in Charlotte, North Carolina, Lennox Graham has left to join fellow Jamaican Mark Elliot at Division I outfit Clemson University in South Carolina.

In his 10 years at Johnson C. Smith Graham had a lot of success guiding 27 athletes to NCAA Division II championships titles, both indoor and outdoor. Five set Division II records in 60 metres hurdles, 200 metres, 400 metres hurdles and 4x100 metres.

Graham, a member of the national coaching staff at the recent IAAF World Championships in London, has also had some success with athletes at the international level. At the 2015 IAAF World Championships in Beijing, China he coached sisters Danielle and Shermaine Williams to the 100m hurdle final, where Danielle won gold in 12.58 seconds and Shermaine placed seventh in 12.91.

Winning record

Danielle also won the sprint hurdles gold medal at the World University Games in Gwangju, South Korea in 2015.

He has also coached many-time national 400 metres hurdles champion Leford Green who participated at the 2012 Olympic Games, and he is currently the coach of Canadian standout, Kendra Clarke, who competed at the Rio Olympic Games in 2016.

Elliott, the head coach at Clemson, is very excited that Graham is joining his programme.

"I am very happy to have Lennox (Graham) as a part of my coaching staff at Clemson as he has proven over the years that he is one of the better coaches around.

He has proven at every level that he can coach and when I lost my top assistant who moved to the University of Georgia, I aggressively pursued Lennox to be a part of my programme.

When you lose one of your top coaches you definitely want to get someone who is just as good as a replacement and being in a powerful division I knew then that Lennox would have been the right fit. I did not recruit him because he is a Jamaican, but because of his excellent track record," Elliot told The Gleaner yesterday.

In a farewell message on the Johnson C. Smith website, Graham said: "I wish the track and field programmes, the athletic department and Johnson C. Smith University nothing but great success in the future."