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SAFA & FRIENDS PULL IN THE FANS
THE QUEEN’S/GRACE JACKSON INVITATIONAL
WRAP
by
Laurie Foster
February 1, 2007
 The three-time 9.77
short sprint world record man, Asafa Powell ‘’opened the flood gates’’
at the National Stadium East Field on the last Saturday in January and
did the fans pour in?. They were there to catch an early sighter of what
the elite MVP Club and their athletes would put down, as they launched
their medal assault for this summer’s World Championships in the
Japanese city of Osaka. Even the traditional football massive from
neighbouring Nannyville turned up to witness the spectacle.
They were not
disappointed. In a show of the strategy deemed to ‘’maximize velocity
and power’’, words from which the achronym, MVP, was hatched, the
Stephen Francis charges were seen in events other than those in which
they hope to garner medals, come August/September.
When the 400 metres
events for non-schoolers were about to start, there was a buzz among the
spectators, sun-beaten in the single stand at trackside. One could
scarely believe that this was but a development meet. The thoughts of
expected ‘’head to head’’ clashes from athletes from Kingston College,
threatening to take the rash of Champs successes to epidemal proportions
and those from high school ace coach, Michael Clarke’s Red Hills Road
camp were backseated, if only temporarily. Yes, there were other
athletes there, doing their individual routines but it was the MVP group
who provided the big moments.
To start the action
Shericka Williams the 2005 400m national champion and one lap hurdler,
Melaine Walker, who recently joined the elite group, did not furrow any
eyebrows with half mile runs of 2:19.17 and 2:19.30, respectively.
Kaliese Spencer, the 400m hurdles World Junior Champion called on her
high school experience to run a creditable 2:06.30.
The ante was raised in
the quarter mile races as, first, the focus was on a heat of the women’s
race, with national record holder in the 100m hurdles, Brigette Foster-Hylton
who boasts two (2) medals in the event at back to back World Champs,
running out of lane one, looking at the back of the current world’s
fastest sprinter, Sherone Simpson in lane two and the South African,
Geraldine Pillay out in lane eight. It was Sherone who made it home
first in a promising 53.40 clocking two hundredths of a second faster
than her 2006 effort. Brigitte was close behind in 53.44 and the South
African fifth in 57.13.
Their post race
sentiments said it all.
Foster-Hylton ‘’First of
all, I had fun, I approached it knowing that it is a part of my training
program and it was only going to help me in the long run, and that was
just my mental mindset, my goal was to better my 53.8 PB which I run
here two years ago and I think I did that, I had fun, lane one was kind
of steep for me but I had fun nevertheless’’.
Pillay: ‘’My objective
was just to finish the race as it was my first 400 metres and I was
aiming to break the 60 second barrier which I did and I am very proud of
myself’’.
Sherone Simpson, in her
post race chat, was just happy to break her personal best of 53.42 the
previous year but as to what could be read into that improvement, she
preferred to allow her coach to assess.
In the men’s races, the
‘’toast of the day’’, Asafa Powell showed determination and grit to get
home with some heavy wind in his face, finishing in 47.67 seconds.
Neither Soca Boy, Darrell Brown or Michael Frater, the World Champs
silver medalists at 100m in Paris (2003) and Helsinki (2005)
respectively seemed to relish the going and both were timed in a shade
over 50 seconds. New recruit for Kingston College standout, Andre
Wellington (48.67) and high jump sensation, bronze man from WIC,
Budapest (2004), Germaine Mason, now back in the camp, (49.30) had
interesting runs.
Super-coach Francis,
usually, more ponderous than expressive, smiled all day, an awesome
indicator of what is in store. Keep it locked.
Laurie Foster is a
veteran sports writer, cricket, being his first foray into sports
journalism, but, recently, ‘’addicted’’ to track and field, where he has
covered, both for radio and the written press, several IAAF World Series
events, starting from the World Juniors in Sudbury, Canada, 1988.
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