Daley: Staying healthy is number one

At 10.08 seconds, DeAndre Daley is the joint 31st fastest Under-20 100 metres man in history, alongside the likes of Olympic/World champion Justin Gatlin and world 200m champion Ramil Guliyev. His goals for 2024 are lofty but the outgoing Herbert Morrison Technical High School senior offers them without hyperbole. He simply wants to stay healthy, to win at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Championships (Champs), and to challenge for the World Under-20 gold medal in the 100m.

He ran 10.14 seconds behind Bouwahjgie Nkrumie’s national Under-20 record of 9.99 in the Class One 100m final last March. Given that injuries blotted his Champs efforts in the past, it’s no wonder health is highest on his list of priorities. Asked for his 2024 targets, he said, “Finishing healthy is number one for me, then winning the gold medal at the Champs, because I haven’t won a gold medal as yet, then go for the world junior title.”

In 2021, the Claude Grant-coached athlete set the fastest time at Champs in the Class Two 100m – 10.74 seconds – but couldn’t finish his semi-final. In 2022, he beat Nkrumie to win the Carifta Games 100m in Kingston but got hurt later on and missed the World Under-20 Championships.

Sadly, his Carifta title defence fizzled in the heats. Racing in the Bahamas, he was disqualified for jumping the gun, but he doesn’t dwell on it. “That is the first time in my career I have ever false-started, so it is not in my mind or anything,” he said.

A healthy 2023, a June personal best of 10.08, and his school’s sprint heritage has him looking ahead. Coached by Grant, Dexter Lee won the World Under-20 100m in both 2008 and 2010 and Daley hopes to add to that heritage. However, despite a blistering anchor for the Herbert Morrison 4x200m team at the Gibson-McCook Relays last year, he isn’t sure if he will run both the 100m and 200m.

“It depends on my coach. We will sit and discuss if I’m going to run the 200m. The 100m is definite but the 200m, depending on how my body reacts to the 200m programme, I would definitely take it on”, he said.

His Gibson-McCook split was 19.9 seconds, and moved his team from sixth to third.

Daley, who turns 19 this week, covered 400m in 50.44 seconds last week and is expected to do the 100m this week at the Western Relays.

He expects to become a businessman. “I’m going to study something in the business field,” he said. “Yes, that is the plan. I have a scholarship lined up. So, after high school, I’m planning to go straight into school to study business,” Daley outlined.

Of course, professional recruiters will appear if he breaks 10 seconds. Faced with that possibility, the lad gave a wise answer.

“If I run sub-10, then when that bridge comes, we’ll cross it,” he said.