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Blake, Todd most improved, says Wilson
BY PAUL BURROWES Observer writer
Sunday, December 11, 2011
WITH the 2012 Indoor collegiate season already underway in the United States, Jamaica's head coach Maurice Wilson has hailed two of the country's outdoor champions for their remarkable performances.
He also named his breakout athlete and had pertinent advice on athletes jumping from club to club.
To put it simply, Wilson said: "The most improved senior athlete is Yohan Blake and the most improved Junior is Odail Todd."
The reigning and youngest IAAF World Championship 100m gold medallist, the 21-year-old Blake ran 12 times under 10 seconds in the past two years.
His personal best 9.82 seconds in Zurich on September 8 made him the seventh fastest man of all time in the 100 metres.
A week later, in Brussels, he bolted to a world-leading and personal best 19.26 seconds, the second fastest time ever in the history of the half-lap event and for which he won the IAAF Performer of the Year Award.
Blake also featured in Jamaica's 4x100m relay world record run in another September to remember, with a blistering third leg after Nesta Carter and Michael Frater before handing over to Bolt for the 37.04sec clocking.
The quartet smashed Jamaica's previous world record of 37.10 set at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Meanwhile Todd, at the age of 16 at the 2011 World Youth Championship, won gold in the 100m and silver in the 200m, his preferred event.
The Green Island High sprinter reduced his time in the 100m from 10.69 seconds to 10.41 (wind-aided) and lowered his 200m from 21.35 last year to 21.00 this year.
Todd, who turned 17 in September, will focus on the 14th World Junior Championships in Barcelona, Spain next July.
Wilson also included another category.
"The breakout athlete for me could be Rasheed Dwyer," Wilson added.
The 22-year-old World University Games champion from GC Foster College, Dwyer ran a personal best 20.20 seconds, the 15th fastest time 200m in the world this year.
He is expected to break the 20-second barrier next year, having improved from 21.12 in 2009, to 20.49 last year, and his current 20.20 makes him the ninth fastest Jamaican in history.
Like Dwyer, many Jamaican athletes want to improve year after year even as they look after their own welfare which may mean leaving their coaches and clubs.
"The athlete with good advice must always do what they think will be in their best," explained Wilson, who has conditioned Holmwood Technical High School girls to their ninth consecutive Champs title.
"There is, however, a protocol that must be adhered to by both athlete and coach involved and all of this is clearly in the IAAF manual.
"Athletes must try to maintain a certain level of civility and respectfulness to the persons who assisted them so those same persons will be encouraged to assist other athletes to come," he stressed.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/sport...#ixzz1gHL0x2Zi
BY PAUL BURROWES Observer writer
Sunday, December 11, 2011
WITH the 2012 Indoor collegiate season already underway in the United States, Jamaica's head coach Maurice Wilson has hailed two of the country's outdoor champions for their remarkable performances.
He also named his breakout athlete and had pertinent advice on athletes jumping from club to club.
To put it simply, Wilson said: "The most improved senior athlete is Yohan Blake and the most improved Junior is Odail Todd."
The reigning and youngest IAAF World Championship 100m gold medallist, the 21-year-old Blake ran 12 times under 10 seconds in the past two years.
His personal best 9.82 seconds in Zurich on September 8 made him the seventh fastest man of all time in the 100 metres.
A week later, in Brussels, he bolted to a world-leading and personal best 19.26 seconds, the second fastest time ever in the history of the half-lap event and for which he won the IAAF Performer of the Year Award.
Blake also featured in Jamaica's 4x100m relay world record run in another September to remember, with a blistering third leg after Nesta Carter and Michael Frater before handing over to Bolt for the 37.04sec clocking.
The quartet smashed Jamaica's previous world record of 37.10 set at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Meanwhile Todd, at the age of 16 at the 2011 World Youth Championship, won gold in the 100m and silver in the 200m, his preferred event.
The Green Island High sprinter reduced his time in the 100m from 10.69 seconds to 10.41 (wind-aided) and lowered his 200m from 21.35 last year to 21.00 this year.
Todd, who turned 17 in September, will focus on the 14th World Junior Championships in Barcelona, Spain next July.
Wilson also included another category.
"The breakout athlete for me could be Rasheed Dwyer," Wilson added.
The 22-year-old World University Games champion from GC Foster College, Dwyer ran a personal best 20.20 seconds, the 15th fastest time 200m in the world this year.
He is expected to break the 20-second barrier next year, having improved from 21.12 in 2009, to 20.49 last year, and his current 20.20 makes him the ninth fastest Jamaican in history.
Like Dwyer, many Jamaican athletes want to improve year after year even as they look after their own welfare which may mean leaving their coaches and clubs.
"The athlete with good advice must always do what they think will be in their best," explained Wilson, who has conditioned Holmwood Technical High School girls to their ninth consecutive Champs title.
"There is, however, a protocol that must be adhered to by both athlete and coach involved and all of this is clearly in the IAAF manual.
"Athletes must try to maintain a certain level of civility and respectfulness to the persons who assisted them so those same persons will be encouraged to assist other athletes to come," he stressed.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/sport...#ixzz1gHL0x2Zi
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