Murphy's ready again

• Teen sprinter fully recovered from injury
• Aims to clock 10.2 over 100m next year

Anthony Minott, Gleaner Writer

Bridgeport High's 16-year-old national representative Jazeel Murphy, the sprint kid that burst onto the scene in 2008 at Boys' Champs, is now fully healed from a hamstring injury earlier this year and raring to go.

"Jazeel [Murphy] is now 100 per cent healed from the hamstring strain that kept him out of action for months, but he is getting there," said his coach at Bridgeport High, Carl Page, during a recent interview with The Gleaner.

Murphy last ran at the Tyser-Mills Development meet at G.C. Foster College on Saturday, December 11, where he won the boys' Class One 150m in 16.6 seconds to beat another national representative, Javere Bell (16.7 seconds) of Seaforth High, after a nine-month break from competitive running due to the hamstring injury.

He had carried this injury into Champs, and aggravated it in the Class Two 100m final, where he placed third behind Odean Skeen, the champion and Munro College's Adam Cummings.

Murphy, who won the Under-17 sprint double at the Carifta Games in 2009, has a personal best of 10.41 in the 100m, a time he clocked to win the gold medal in the Carifta final in April 2009.

He also ran 20.97 to win the 200m at the same Games, which is still his best time over the distance.

In the meantime, Page is not taking any chances with his precious talent and will run him sparingly this season only at track meets with chevron-made tracks, for fear he will aggravate any muscle problems.

"Murphy should be running selected track meets in January," Page disclosed.

He further stated that Murphy has the ability to become a great sprinter and only has one weakness, which is his start.

"He needs to work on his start, because in most of his 100m races he has to run and catch his main competitors," Page admitted.

Admired athletes

Meanwhile, Murphy said he admires Jamaica's two male sprint phenoms - World and Olympic champion and world-record holder for the 100m and 200m, Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell.

"Bolt, because he is tall and strong and very explosive in the 200m; and Powell, because he has a very good start in the 100m."

Murphy, known for his good drive phase and top-end speed, also admitted that his weak area is his start.

"My major weakness as a sprinter is my start, but I am constantly working on it," Murphy assured.

His major threat for next season, which looks interestingly poised, is Wolmerian Skeen, the Youth Olympics Games 100m champion.

Skeen has personal best times of 10.42 and 20.84 for the sprints, the latter being the Carifta Under-17 200m record.

Also on Murphy's agenda is another Wolmerian, Juilian Forte, the defending Class One 100m and 200m champion; and his long-time rival, Munro's Cummings.

Optimistic

Skeen, Cummings and Murphy will all be competing in Class One for the first year, and Murphy is looking forward to next year with optimism.

"Hopefully I can go through the season injury-free. I'm targeting 10.2 seconds for the 100m and 20.6 for the 200m as I'm training really hard to reach my goals," he said.

"World Juniors is in my sights and I'm looking to do well at that championships," he added.

During his time away from the track, Murphy was given "active rest" as he did mainly strength exercises and aquatic training in the pool.

He said during his downtime he reflected on his career and vowed to approach the sport more seriously.

"It was a difficult time in my life, and I had to cope with the disappointments of missing a number of Games and meets, and watch my rivals shine in my absence," he said. "But the time was well-spent. I saw the importance and has been taking my training more seriously and doing more stretching exercises to prevent injuries."