Jaheel Hyde outruns COVID-19

For the second year in a row, Jaheel Hyde has produced a big run to earn the title of National Champion. On Friday, the 25-year-old turned on the speed to clock the fastest Jamaican time of the year, 48.51 seconds. Remarkably, the performance by Hyde came after a bout with the COVID-19 virus.

The 2018 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist competed in Rabat on June 4.

“When he was there, just after the race, and while leaving Morocco, he realised that he had COVID-19, and he had to stay there for a week and when you’re there for a week, it’s not as if you can go and train. You’re stuck in the hotel. They’re not letting you out, and, as such, he would have lost some ground in that week,” said Hyde’s Swept Track Club coach Okeile Stewart the morning after Hyde’s exciting win inside the National Stadium.

The recovered Hyde made Stewart worry after a time of 49.58 seconds in the heats at the Nationals on Thursday. “After the heats, he was saying he’s feeling some pressure from the COVID-19, the breathing a little bit off,” the coach reported, “And, as such, we say, you know what, let’s just focus on just getting the win and then we’ll take it from there.”

Hyde, once a promising footballer, had to hold off the hard-charging Kemar Mowatt, who was fourth at the 2017 World Championships in London, England. “The thing about it, Jaheel at the National Stadium with his fans looking down, I knew he would have found an extra gear. I’m very close to Mowatt as well and I know he’s a competitor and I knew he would have brought some challenge,” the coach said.

Mowatt stopped the clock at 48.53 seconds which is his number-two time of his career.

Stewart, who coached Rushell Clayton to the women’s bronze medal at the last World Championships, knows Hyde and Mowatt will need to approach or break the 48-second barrier to prosper.

“Once they are able to go below 48 seconds, I guess they will position themselves to maybe get into the finals at the World Championships and once you’re in a final, as you see in the female race, it’s an obstacle race, anything can happen,” he concluded with an oblique reference to the calamity that befell the fastest Jamaican female 400 hurdler of 2022, Andrenette Knight a few races earlier.

On a good night for Stewart-coached hurdlers, Camperdown High School track and field captain Roshawn Clarke ran solo in the under-20 boys race to a personal best of 49.39 seconds.