Cejhae Greene pleasantly surprised by world-leading 100m time while Bloomfield, Whyte win 200m races in Miami

By March 22, 2021

Following his world-leading 100-metre time set at the Tropical Elite Sprints Meet in Miami on Saturday, Antigua and Barbuda's CejHae Greene said he did not expect to go so fast so early.

He did say, however, that he intends to go a bit faster over the course of the season as the Olympic Games draw nearer.

Also at the meet held at the Tropical Park Stadium, Jamaica’s Akeem Bloomfield and Natalliah Whyte, Greene’s MVP International training partners, enjoyed impressive wins over 200m.

The 25-year-old Greene was second in his preliminary round heat in 10.27 behind the USA’s World Championship 400m medalist, Fred Kerley, who won in 10.15. However, he managed to turn the tables on his more celebrated American rival in the final, winning in 10.01.

Kerley was second in 10.11, the third-fastest time in the world this year, while Jeremy Bascomb was third in 10.51.

Greene said the time came as a bit of a shock.

“I was surprised to see 10.01 show up on the clock but coach been saying I am in good shape, I have been training well so once I executed a good race I should run fairly fast, but in my head, fairly fast meant 10.1/10.2, so it just shows that if you listen to your coach and do what you have been doing in practice you should be fine,” said Greene, who ran with a trailing wind of 1.2m/s.

He revealed that having Fred Kerley in the race also played its part in his fast season-opener that bumped China’s Bingtian Su’s 10.05 that was run earlier Saturday, from the top spot.

“Fred’s presence made me have to focus a little bit more because we all know Fred is fast so it kind of forced me to compete at a higher level,” Greene said.

“Fred’s presence really changed the game because I knew I had to execute a really good race because Fred is fast and he is strong, he is one of the best 400m athletes in the world so I know I had to execute the start very well to win the race.”

Realistically, it should not have been that much of a surprise for the 2016 Olympian given how well he says he has been training at MVP International’s base camp in Florida. He said the competitive nature of training has helped him bring out his best.

“My training group definitely helped me push a little harder this year. Being alongside Akeem Bloomfield, Nathon Allen and Teray Smith each day at practice, it gets really competitive and we push each other and we go at it. Every day is like a race so I think that really helped me to push myself to be in a lot better shape this early,” he said while revealing that he intends to dip below 10 seconds in time for the Olympic Games this summer.

“The goal is to go sub-10 and once we keep healthy and keep listening to the coach and keep executing races, getting race sharp, that should happen. So my goal is to keep improving each week in practice, stay healthy and go on to the Olympics and do great things.”

He said he is likely to race next in Clermont on April 4, where he could be running the 200m.

“I want to improve my 200 times. I know once I can improve over the 200m it should translate pretty good into the 100 so I’ll probably give it a shot down there.”

Bloomfield was also impressive at the meet seemingly exerting relatively little effort in winning the 200m in 20.75 over Teray Smith (20.90) and Zaza Wellington (21.05), respectively.

In the women’s event, Whyte, a sprint relay gold medalist at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, was the fastest Jamaican in the world with her winning time of 22.88.

In the time trial, Angela Tenorio was second-best in 23.06 while Ashley Kelly was third in 24.18.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leighton Levy

Leighton Levy is a journalist with 28 years’ experience covering crime, entertainment, and sports. He joined the staff at SportsMax.TV as a content editor two years ago and is enjoying the experience of developing sports content and new ideas. At SportsMax.tv he is pursuing his true passion - sports.

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