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  • Lee, McKenzie join Akan Track Club

    Lee, McKenzie join Akan Track Club

    BY PAUL A REID Observer writer
    Sunday, September 22, 2013


    MONTEGO BAY, St James — Two-time IAAF World Junior Championships men's 100m champion Dexter Lee and World Youth Championships 200m gold medallist Ramone McKenzie have joined the Akan Track Club based in Kingston where they will be coached by Michael Clarke for the 2014 track and field season.


    After spending the last two seasons elsewhere with very little success, both athletes, who were expected to be part of the Jamaican senior set-up after stellar junior careers, will both be seeking to resuscitate their foundering track and field prospects under the guidance of one of the island's top coaches.


    MCKENZIE… flirted with the 100m over the past two seasons while he was based in Florida

    LEE… became the first Jamaican man to win a global 100m gold medal when he won the IAAF World Youth Championships in 2007 in Ostrava



    MCKENZIE… flirted with the 100m over the past two seasons while he was based in Florida


    In confirming the addition of Lee and McKenzie to his club, Clarke, who was the head coach for the Jamaican team at the recent 14th IAAF World Championships in Moscow, Russia, last month, told the Jamaica Observer it was a "joy" for him to be able to attract athletes of this calibre to his fledgling outfit.

    "I have been doing this for a number of years, and to get the chance to contribute to the talent development in Jamaica is a joy to me as I have a passion for coaching," said Clarke, who has won more than 10 ISSA Boys' Championships with St Jago High, Jamaica College and Calabar High.

    He admitted that his success with World Championships 400m relay silver medallist Javon Francis this past season would have helped, but pointed out that he also had two other athletes, 4x100m relay gold medallist Oshane Bailey, and 200m semi-finalist Jason Livermore on the team to Moscow, as well.

    "Francis' success was an eye-opener for some," he said. "Others have also noticed the success of Bailey and Livermore as well."
    Both Lee and McKenzie were expected to have started pre-season workouts at Calabar High with their new teammates on Wednesday afternoon.

    While McKenzie flirted with the 100m over the past two seasons while he was based in Florida, Clarke said the plan right now was for the athlete, who was nicknamed 'Batman' for the mask he wore while competing, to go back to the 200m/400m double, but added that they were keeping their "options open".

    Lee became the first Jamaican man to win a global 100m gold medal when he won the IAAF World Youth Championships in 2007 in Ostrava, then became the first man to win back-to-back 100m titles at the World Junior level, in 2008 in Bydgoszcz, Poland, and 2010 in Moncton, Canada, before winning a gold medal at the 2011 World Championships when he anchored the 4x100m team in the heats in Daegu, South Korea.

    After changing coaches at the start of the 2012 season, from Claude Grant, the man who discovered him at Herbert Morrison in Montego Bay, and moving to Kingston, Lee had endured two seasons full of disappointments, running 10.15 seconds at the Jamaica International Invitational last year, and 10.19 seconds at the National Senior Trials this year, both far from the personal best 10.06 seconds he set at a meet in Brazil in 2011.

    Meanwhile, Clarke said the addition to his Akan club was good for Jamaica's track and field as the two established clubs, Racers Track Club, led by Glen Mills and including world and Olympic sprint medallists Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake and Warren Weir, and the Stephen Francis-led MVP TC will eventually become oversubscribed.

    "The two top clubs cannot and will not be able to take everybody, so this is a good move for us, and Jamaica's track product will benefit. And for Akan to be mentioned in the same breath as those two, is good, and in time we will blossom," he told the Observer.

    The focus at Akan presently is to work with sprinters between 100m and 400m. "We want to keep it tight for right now and just keep quality athletes and at a manageable level."

    Getting the opportunity to work with Lee, he said, was "a coach's dream. I am happy to be given the chance to work with a well-decorated athlete of promise. There is no reason why he should not be able to get back to his best, and improve."

    McKenzie is 'returning home' after he was part of Clarke's team at Calabar for a number of years. "We have a long association, and when he asked me to be his coach I welcomed the opportunity," Clarke said.



    Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/sport...#ixzz2feYw86G1
    "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

  • #2
    Who know bout this track club? How long dem deh bout?
    Any successful athletes at the international level?
    Winning means you're willing to go longer, work harder, and give more than anyone else - Vince Lombardi

    Comment


    • #3
      Michael Clarke from C'Bar.

      Coaches Javon Francis, Jason Livermore and Oshane Bailey from the Moscow team.

      If he is going pro, the Cbar will need a new coach!

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Willi View Post
        Michael Clarke from C'Bar.

        Coaches Javon Francis, Jason Livermore and Oshane Bailey from the Moscow team.

        If he is going pro, the Cbar will need a new coach!
        The club seems to be based at Calabar. No doubt coach Clarke (an excellent human being btw) will still coach those Greenies
        TIVOLI: THE DESTRUCTION OF JAMAICA'S EVIL EMPIRE

        Recognizing the victims of Jamaica's horrendous criminality and exposing the Dummies like Dippy supporting criminals by their deeds.. or their silence.

        D1 - Xposing Dummies since 2007

        Comment


        • #5
          I hope this works for Lee. Again he is changing coaches.
          • Don't let negative things break you, instead let it be your strength, your reason for growth. Life is for living and I won't spend my life feeling cheated and downtrodden.

          Comment


          • #6
            Cant serve God and Mammon!

            Sumpen gotta give.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Willi View Post
              Cant serve God and Mammon!

              Sumpen gotta give.
              ok boss
              TIVOLI: THE DESTRUCTION OF JAMAICA'S EVIL EMPIRE

              Recognizing the victims of Jamaica's horrendous criminality and exposing the Dummies like Dippy supporting criminals by their deeds.. or their silence.

              D1 - Xposing Dummies since 2007

              Comment


              • #8
                I don't think he has the physical attributes to be an elite 100m sprinter. I think he should try another discipline, maybe hurdles or the longer distances.
                Hey .. look at the bright side .... at least you're not a Liverpool fan! - Lazie 2/24/10 Paul Marin -19 is one thing, 20 is a whole other matter. It gets even worse if they win the UCL. *groan*. 05/18/2011.MU fans naah cough, but all a unuh a vomit?-Lazie 1/11/2015

                Comment


                • #9
                  And what physical attributes are those? Is he too tall? Too few fast twitch muscles? What?


                  BLACK LIVES MATTER

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    LOL. It look like him have the West African genes, or it could be the east, hence Jangle's point that the longer distance might suit him. LOL
                    • Don't let negative things break you, instead let it be your strength, your reason for growth. Life is for living and I won't spend my life feeling cheated and downtrodden.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Him too brown!!!!!?
                      Hey .. look at the bright side .... at least you're not a Liverpool fan! - Lazie 2/24/10 Paul Marin -19 is one thing, 20 is a whole other matter. It gets even worse if they win the UCL. *groan*. 05/18/2011.MU fans naah cough, but all a unuh a vomit?-Lazie 1/11/2015

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Seriously though I think he's too skinny for an elite 100m runner. I don't think he can go much faster. Right now, if you can't brush 9.80 consistently, then yuh naw seh nutten. I think he is way down on Jamaica's list.
                        Hey .. look at the bright side .... at least you're not a Liverpool fan! - Lazie 2/24/10 Paul Marin -19 is one thing, 20 is a whole other matter. It gets even worse if they win the UCL. *groan*. 05/18/2011.MU fans naah cough, but all a unuh a vomit?-Lazie 1/11/2015

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Someone wrote the other day that Asafa Powell had the perfect sprinter's physique. Well, imperfect Usain Bolt is way faster.

                          So, on a scale of 1 to Asafa, where does Lee fall? And does it really matter? Let's see what Akan Track Club can do with this other imperfect specimen.


                          BLACK LIVES MATTER

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            him name lee ... dat sound .. oriental.

                            Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe. Thomas Paine

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Siccko used to boost up Dexter saying he was a CHAMPION.

                              Those of us in the know used to tell him that Blake was faster, the better talent and would do better at Senior level nd him spurn our opinion. Well, look at them now...who is the senior champion? Who faster?

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