Riley confirms readiness of Team Ja at World U-20s
Published:Tuesday | August 17, 2021 | 12:08 AMHubert Lawrence/Gleaner Writer -
Jamaica's team to this week's World Under-20 Athletics Championships is ready to go. That is the word from head coach David Riley who says the squad is focused and determined to do well at the five-day event,which will be staged in Nairobi, Kenya, starting on Wednesday.
"They're ready," Riley said. "The temperatures are a bit lower than they had expected. We had prepared them for that. Medical is prepared for those conditions as well. We had a decent training session yesterday and this morning, and I think this morning would have been a little more along the lines of what they would be expecting."
The temperature on Monday in Nairobi rose to a high of 17 degrees Celsius.
Riley said that he and his staff are assessing the impact of a late reduction of the length of the meet from six days to five. That change has led to the heats and finals of the mixed 4x400m relay both being contested on the first day of the championships, but coach Riley isn't worried.
"Fortunately, we brought enough persons for the 1,600m relay pools," he said. "We had a wide pool for both relays, so we are pretty much drawing the athletes in that pool, still assessing whether our hurdlers can actually play a role. That is part of the assessment we are doing. We have enough persons to handle the mixed relay, heats, and final."
Asked if the team was drawing motivation from Jamaica's performances at the recent Olympic Games in Tokyo, he replied: "These youngsters kinda see their own assignment in the context of their own age group. I would expect that some are motivated in the sense that, as usual, they don't want to go back without a medal, so they are very focused and determined in doing their best."
Riley says local training camps held both before and after the National Junior Championships have helped.
"We know the personalities. They know what the coaches require, and they know what the business at hand is because we've been talking to them, and drilling them, and helping them to focus," he said. "I think the camp helped to do that because the effort that was put in the camp kind of made persons realise it was really serious business, that we need to bring our best effort and showcase what we have.
"So I think we've really gotten to them psychologically. They're very confident, but I'm not sure if it's somehow related to the performances of the Olympic team."