'Girls will come good'

Mills confident in development of Racers Track Club's female athletes

André Lowe, Senior Staff Reporter

Glen Mills, president and head coach of one of Jamaica's premier track and field clubs, Racers, is confident that their female athletes will come good in due time, amid concerns within some circles that they have been overshadowed by their more celebrated male stablemates.

At present, there are eight female athletes on the Racers Track Club roster, including 2008 Beijing Olympics 400m finalist, relay gold medallist and 2009 IAAF World Championships 4x400m relay silver medallist, Rosemarie Whyte; 2007 World Championships 4x400m relay silver medallist, Davita Prendergast; 2007 Pan American Games 100m bronze medallist, Schillonie Calvert; 2007 World Junior Championships 400m silver medallist, Sonita Sutherland; and 2009 World Championships and 2008 Beijing Olympics 4x400m relay medallist, Shereefa Lloyd.

Female programme

While admitting that the club has been somewhat focused on male athletes since its inception, Mills underlined that this direction had changed since their official launch a year and a half ago.

"We were predominantly a club that had male athletes," Mills said. "After we launched, a plan was developed to create a strong female programme and increase the membership of our female athletes."

Mills, who, along with his cadre of coaches, conditions the likes of triple Olympic and World Championships gold medallist, Usain Bolt, along with Yohan Blake, Jermaine Gonzales, and Daniel Bailey, had promised at the club's launch to diversify the club and add more females to the ranks.

Too soon to judge

With this plan firmly on course, the highly respected coach, who is also credited for guiding the development of Raymond Stewart and St Kitts and Nevis' Kim Collins, believes that it is too soon to judge the development of the women.

"To date, we have about six or seven females in the club. We have a small group now when you look at the individuals who have joined us. In a year and a half we haven't hit the stars as yet, so to speak, but it's been a short time," said Mills, who also pointed out that several of the female athletes had joined the Racers camp with "challenges".

"Plus, individually, most of them came to us, and while they had been doing well before, they had challenges, and we inherited some of those challenges, and we have set about trying to correct them before we try to push on.

This takes time and we are not going to rush them," Mills added.

He underlined that it was only a matter of time before his girls would come good and that their development was not something to be concerned about at this stage.

"It's not something that we are concerned about. I am concerned about whether or not we are doing the best for these persons, and they are all quite happy and satisfied with what is being done, and they understand that eventually, they will put their demons behind them and will move forward," said Mills.

"We are confident in our programme at Racers and we are positive that it will get them to fulfill their full potential in time. But as I said, most of them have a number of challenges that we are working on," he pointed out.