Cedricka Williams, answering the calls from the discus
Published:Wednesday | March 16, 2022 | 12:09 AMHubert Lawrence/Gleaner Writer
UNSUCCESSFUL AS a sprinter, Cedricka Williams changed to throwing in 2018 and now is the best young discus thrower in the land. There are big meets on the radar but Williams just wants to keep on winning.
On March 12, the second day of the Carifta Trials at the National Stadium, the Holmwood Technical High School student-athlete saw off a strong field in the under-20 discus. She bombed them early with a 48.10-metre first effort and followed up with her best distance of the day, 50.04 metres. Camperdown’s Britannia Johnson, winner of the shot put, rescued her second Carifta team selection with a last-round toss of 47.58 but Williams was long gone.
The champion had mixed feelings about her success. And went on to prove why feelings of disappointment were present at Central Championships a few days later.
“I am elated. I’m glad to perform for my country. It is very exciting for me,” said the 2019 Carifta Under-17 champion.
Then her face turned glum.
“My performance today was not great because of some reasons, and also I can throw more than what I did today so I am a bit down,” she explained.
At the time, outside of being unbeaten, none of Williams’ compatriots has broken 49 or 50 metres this year. Yesterday, Abigail Martin of St Jago showed she was game this season with a 52.01 throw to finish second to Williams’ record-breaking 53.91 throw at Central Championships.
PERSONAL BEST
Last month, the Ocho Rios native had a personal best of 53.58 metres, well beyond the existing Boys and Girls’ Championships class one record, which is 53.04 metres by Fiona Richards of Edwin Allen in 2017. So it seems, Williams is just getting better and better.
Williams became a thrower almost by accident.
“I started throwing because in class four, I wasn’t that great in running, so in class three, I made up my mind and conditioned it to coming on top and being someone that is always highlighted,” Williams recounted.
Donovan Jones, her coach at Holmwood, added, “When we looked at it, throwing fit her. I think it’s a calling for her and she’s been doing well.”
Then he added an ominous note, saying, “I think she has a lot more to come.”
With the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Championships less than a month away, Jones pinpointed the technical area he and Williams will fine-tune in training.
“I think we still need to do some work on the turn, especially at the front, so we’ll be focusing on that for the next couple of weeks,” he said.
Jones is confident that Williams will add to the Boys and Girls’ Championships discus titles she has won in class two and three.
“The aim is to come to the Champs, get the nine points, get the win and take it from there,” he said.
“Definitely, we are at home with the Carifta Games so we want to put on a show. We want to put on a performance for the crowd and further down the year, we have the World Juniors, which we’re also looking forward to,” said Jones.
The Games will take place in Kingston on the Easter Weekend next month and the World Under-20 Championships are set for Cali, Colombia, in August.