The University of Texas-bound Kevona Davis said Jamaica missed something special this past March when the Inter-Secondary School Sports Association (ISSA) cancelled the annual Boys and Girls Championships because of the threat of the spread of the Coronavirus, COVID-19.

Davis, the Edwin Allen star sprinter, said she was confident she would have broken the 11-second barrier had she been able to go up against her similarly talented rival Ashanti Moore of Hydel High in the Class-One Girls (16-19) 100m finals.

Tongues began to wag from as early as March 2019 when Davis, the running in what has turned out to be her final year at Champs, won the Girls 14-16 years 100 metres in a personal best 11.16s.

Meanwhile, Moore also won impressively in the Girls 16-19 100m, in a personal best of 11.19.

Davis, who turned 18 late last year, would have matriculated to Moore’s class for the 2020 season setting up a potentially epic battle at Champs 2020.

Alas, it was not to be.

Speaking on Sportsnation Live on Nationwide Radio in Kingston on Saturday, May 2, a disappointed Davis said she believed the clash would have lived up to the hype.

“I think it would have been under 11 seconds. I think both of us would have gone under 11 seconds,” Davis said of the clash that was not to be.

“Both of us are great athletes. I was not doubting her and I don’t see why she would doubt me. The two of us, we train hard. I think that would have been a photo finish.

Davis said the disappointment of not having that race was compounded by the fact that this was perhaps the healthiest she had been since she suffered an injury in the 100m final at the 2017 World U18 Championships in Kenya.

Then 16, Davis won a bronze medal at the World U18 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya in 2017 but it came at a heavy price.

Late in the 100m final that she was heavily favoured to win, she suffered a hamstring injury that cost her the gold medal and more importantly, the integrity of a hamstring muscle. The injury, she said, was made worse by her decision to finish that race.

“It was probably about 15 or 20 metres from the (finish) line; it felt like when you burst an elastic band. I said to myself I am almost at the finish line so it doesn’t make any sense to stop now and I don’t get a medal,” she said.

“I was able to finish the race and when I went to the doctor he asked me why didn’t I stop? I asked him how could I stop when I was going so fast and I was almost at the finish line anyway. He said if you had stopped then the injury would have been less severe.”

The injury, she revealed, has been the bane of her existence since then but coming into the 2020 season, she benefitted from changes made to her programme and race schedule.

“We kind of changed the plan a bit from previous years so the same things don’t occur again. So, (Coach Michael Dyke) tried to limit the amount of races that I ran, I visited the doctor regularly for check-ups to see if everything is fine and I just did what I had to do to stay healthy.”