Todd ready to fill void

Andre Lowe, Senior Staff Reporter

LILLE, FRANCE:

Junior 100m and 200m champion Odail Todd is ready to announce his presence on the world stage as he gets ready for this week's IAAF World Youth Championships in Lille, France, assuring that he is ready to fill the void left by star sprinter Jazeel Murphy.

With Murphy - the fastest youth in the world over 100m with 10.21 seconds - being hooked from the team at the 11th hour because of his failure to recover in time from a quadriceps injury, Todd is well aware that himself and 2010 Youth Olympics 100m champion, Odean Skeen, will have to pick up the slack in the sprinting department.

However, the 17-year-old is not the least bothered by his new responsibility and remains confident that he is the man to fill the spikes of the exceptional Murphy.

"We are ready, everybody is ready and we are all just looking to go out there and to compete and to do so to the best of our abilities," said Todd, the Carifta 200m silver medallist.

"Jazeel (Murphy) is definitely a big loss, the team is weakened and the relay team most of all is a bit off but we will just have to patch it up with the other guys and go out there and give it our best," Todd stated. "I'm expecting now that myself and Skeen will have added pressure, but we are ready for it, we are ready to step up."

Todd has been spending the last few weeks working on his start and believes that he is prime for a medal at the July 6-10 meet.

"I think that I am getting there in terms of my readiness. I have been working on my start and hopefully by time the competition comes around, I will be in top shape," said Todd. "I am not nervous at all, in fact, I'm very confident because I believe that once you can win at the Jamaican trials you can definitely medal at the World Championships, so my confidence is up and I'm now just trying to stay focused and get everything together.

"Success at the World Youth Championships would definitely put a great end to my season. I would love to medal and I'm working hard to achieve that objective," Todd added.

Todd, who attends Green Island High, got the better of the fancied Skeen at the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association/ Supreme Ventures Limited National Senior Championships a few weeks ago in both the 100m and 200m, but was quick once again to highlight the Wolmer's athlete's importance to him and their tight friendship.

"Skeen and I, we push each other, we are both very competitive, we joke around and stuff and enjoy ourselves, but when we are on the track it's business time and it's serious business. But otherwise we are very good friends," Todd underlined.