Oral Tracey | Unequivocal support for Briana

I reach out today not as a newspaper columnist, television sports commentator, or radio sports talk-show host. Today, I am the ardent Jamaican fan of young sprint sensation Briana Williams, even more so in the midst of the emotional turbulence she must be presently enduring.

Totally enamoured by her journey, especially with the fact that she was not even born in Jamaica, yet in a sport and in a world where Jamaicans are prone to journey in the opposite direction, Williams gave up the brighter lights, bigger market, and the superior earning potential of representing the United States to don the colours of the country of her mother’s birth.

That noble move aside, Williams’ emergence as a force at the junior level coincided with a period in Jamaican athletics, and Jamaican sports, generally, when the discourse was beginning to converge on the need to better manage the transition of our outstanding young sports stars into successful senior professionals.

Despite being born and still living and training in the USA, at 17, she is already a Jamaican two-time Carifta double-sprint champion and a Jamaican two-time Under-20 World double sprint champion, and just secured a spot on her first senior World Championship team in the 100m, one of the showcase events in Doha, Qatar, later this month.

RAPID PROGRESSION

This rapid progression came under the guidance of her coach, Ato Boldon, who has meticulously piloted the process by the expert implementation of her training regime, and the hand-picking of her races with the focussed objective of creating Jamaica’s next female sprint superstar. All this while her contemporaries in Jamaica remained consumed by the inflated and overrated importance of ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships (Champs) success. While Williams consistently produced her best on the international stage, here Jamaica-born and bred stars routinely faded, either due to injury, burnout or simply under performance whenever international duties called.

She is still very much on her way to demonstrating the previously unthinkable, that a Jamaican sprint superstar could rise without ever having Champs as a priority. Her emergence and subsequent success, as it continues to unfold, could have potentially revolutionary implications in terms of opening up the eyes of the next generation of young Jamaican athletes, their parents, their coaches, and, indeed, an entire brainwashed fraternity, to the fact that there is a better life with bigger possibilities, independent of, and beyond, Champs.

Her fearless competitiveness and her drive for perfection are admirable. The entire Briana Williams package won me over as a fan, and I vow to remain with her through thick and thin. Briana Williams is no cheat, and with all that is now unfolding, as cliché as it might sound, it is simply unfortunate.

It was reported after her 10.94 clocking in the 100m at the National Senior Championships that Williams had flu-like symptoms and would miss the 200m, which she did. News broke about the positive test and the details began to emerge, where the substance in question, hydrochlorothiazide, was ingested via her over-the-counter flu tablets, given by her concerned mother. The medication was declared on the requisite doping-control form, with subsequent revelations pointing to independent tests done on the same batch of medication, revealing the same banned diuretic.

The case is crying out for good sense on the part of the independently appointed disciplinary panel. It is cut and dried that this was a simple, innocent mistake by a minor, who simply trusted the closest adult to her in a time of discomfort. All things considered, a public warning and immediate reinstatement seems appropriate to me, but remember, I am a biased fan and unequivocal supporter of Briana Williams.