Athletes need more time to warm up – Grant - Herbert Morrison coach raises concern, explains decision to pull star athlete

Head coach at Herbert Morrison Technical Claude Grant, who decided to pull his top Class Three sprinter, Deandre Daley, from the meet, believes that insufficient warm up times have caused injuries at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships.

Grant has no doubts that Daley would have run under 10.80 seconds if he was not forced to pull him from the championships moments before the preliminary round of the 100m on Thursday.

The 14-year-old was withdrawn because, as Grant explained, he was not comfortable the youngster could sprint on the slight hamstring tear he had sustained in the 4x100m prelims the evening before.

He further noted that, in his opinion, athletes were not given enough time to warm up, particularly on Thursday, and that he was not prepared to risk his athlete’s future.

“For me, it was an easy decision to pull him. I have always put the athletes’ future in front of Champs. These athletes are trained to run fast, and if you put them on the track, they are not going to take it easy. They are going to run fast, and that is what happened to him in the 4x100m,” Grant said.

Daley came into the championships with the second-fastest time (11.10s) in the class and was expected to provide a strong test for Jamaica College’s Christopher Scott, who blitzed to 10.69 seconds in the preliminary round to erase Bouwahgie Nkrumie’s one-year-old mark of 10.79 seconds.

Nothing to prove

“He was in 10.7s shape, but his future is more important to me. I have nothing to prove because I am not trying to win Champs, and I have coached athletes to world titles before,” said Grant, who coached Dexter Lee to back-to-back World Junior titles in 2008 and 2010.

“The people in the marshalling area are not allowing the athletes to warm up properly. Yesterday (Thursday), it was raining, and they had the athletes sit down, and then they expected [them] to go out and run fast. Something must go wrong. That is why there were so many injuries in the 200m.”

One of those athletes who sustained injuries in the 200 metres is Edwin Allen’s Bethany Bridge, who had to be stretchered off the track.

“I don’t know what is happening this year, but we are getting more injuries than usual,” added a member of the trackside medical team.