Thompson Herah looked a certain possibility for a gold medal at last year’s IAAF World Championships of Athletics in Doha Qatar but inexplicably finished out of contention with countrywoman Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce going on to win an unprecedented fourth 100-metre world title.
It was later explained, that an Achilles injury that had stymied too seasons for Thompson Herah, was back and the athlete was not able to generate the kinds of speeds that saw her win the National Championships in Kingston, Jamaica in a world-leading 10.72 seconds, or the Pan American Games gold medal in Lima, Peru.
At the time, Thompson Herah’s coach, Stephen Francis, had said while the Achilles problem was a recurrent one, on this occasion, it was caused by calf tightness and that she would get over it without surgery.
Thompson Herah still managed a fourth-place finish in Doha but had to pull out of the 200 metres, for which she had already made the semi-final. She would take no further part in the tournament.
According to MVP Track Club President, Bruce James, who spoke to local newspaper, The Gleaner, Thompson Herah is looking better than just injury-free.
“Elaine has returned to training and is looking set to be in fully fit form long before the Olympics in Tokyo,” said James.
How many races it will take Thompson Herah to get back to her best is yet to be ascertained but James is still of the belief that all will be well.
That’s not a decision that is made in January but we are just pleased to know that she’s in training and looking so good,” he said.
Gayle showed he was not joking when he said he might try the sprints when he turned up at the Milo Western Relays last week but could only manage a fifth-place finish in a race won by former World Record holder over 100 metres, Asafa Powell.
The placing and the time, 6.87 seconds, is not a deterrent to Gayle, as he went into the race without any significant expectations.
“The time doesn’t really matter, I would have been satisfied with anything, even 7.0. I’m just here to get competition and experience in sprinting,” said Gayle in an interview with Jamaican Newspaper, The Gleaner.
According to Gayle, the idea that he could be making the Olympic team as both sprinter and long jumper is something that is the brainchild of his coach Paul Francis.
Francis is playing the situation by ear, saying sprinting is a part of jumping, so the process of racing would always have been included in his traditional training.
But he isn’t ruling out the possibility though.
“I can’t predict the future, we’re just trying our best to prepare him. And what will happen will happen at the Trials,” said Francis, coach at MVP Track Club and brother of the famous Stephen Francis.
Gayle though is already finding it difficult to straddle the two events, saying he hasn’t been able to work on certain technical issues like his start because he has had to focus on his jumping.
“Within technical sessions, I’m doing jumps while others are sprinting, so I don’t get the chance to work on it a lot,” he said.
Despite that, the World Champion believes his coach knows what he is capable of, even better than he does.
"If my coach says I can do it, I guess I can," he said.
According to reports, the vehicle Smith was driving, was rear ended, causing a spin that led to a second collision.
Though the car was badly damaged, it was reported that neither Smith, nor the two family members she was travelling with, were badly injured.
Smith, a standout at high school for Wolmer’s Girls in Jamaica’s biggest track and field championships, ran the third leg on Jamaica’s gold medal 4x100-metre team at the IAAF World Championships of Athletics in Doha, Qatar last year and finished sixth in the 100-metre final there.
Smith also recently graduated from Auburn University where she also had a more-than-creditable time on the track.
According to Ricketts coach and husband, Kerry Lee Ricketts, Shanieka will be working on more technical advances to her jumping, which will mean she competes less ahead of the Olympics.
That method is in stark contrast to the way Ricketts approached last year when she had what has been her most successful season to date.
Ricketts competed in 15 meets last year but her coach says she won’t need as many this time around.
“We won’t need many meets. I think she will probably open at either the Jamaica [International] Invitational if it has a triple jump or the Racers Grand Prix,” said coach Ricketts.
Ricketts pointed out that last year, there was a lot of testing to see what worked and what didn’t.
Now that the testing is over, Ricketts says there is no need to jump as much.
“This year, it’s not so much testing, it’s more of preparation, so we’re just basically going to prepare, prepare, prepare,” he said.
Shanieka Ricketts has been hunting for marks over 15 metres, getting closer with her personal best 14.93 metres. To get there, her coach believes she needs to get her final phase right, something that while there has been improvement, accounting for consistently bigger jumps, she still hasn’t nailed down.
“We’ve been putting in a lot of work in the last phase and we haven’t gotten it yet and we still have some work to do,” said the coach.
“It’s a learning process where, you know, you learn A and then you move on to B. You can’t learn A and B at the same time,” he said.
