Don’t Lose Faith In Me, Greene Says

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By Neto Baptiste

National sprinter, Cejhae Greene, has urged fans to not lose faith in his ability after he failed to advance from the first round of the men’s 100 meters event at the ongoing IAAF World Championships in Doha.

Speaking from the athlete’s village in Qatar, Greene admitted that last Friday’s performance was not his best, but sought to reassure his supporters and well-wishers that this was nothing more than an anomaly.

“Just as disappointed as they might be, I am probably 10 times as disappointed in myself even though I know a lot of things leading up to the games didn’t go as planned, I also have a lot of faith in my ability and if I didn’t think I was ready, I would have never been here [in Doha] so I just want them to keep the faith in me, keep supporting me and keep trusting in me that I will continue to do my best because I really did go out there and do all that I could to represent and represent well. Know that every time I step onto the track that I give 100 percent,” he said.

Greene clocked a disappointing 10:33 seconds in heat three on Friday, finishing fifth to crash out of the championships after just one race.

The athlete said a number of factors contributed to his uninspiring performance.

“There were some incidents that happened right after the Pan American Games where I came back to practice and I tweaked my right quad a little bit so I had to take a week off. Then, I was having some issues with my wisdom teeth and so I had to take another 10 days off to deal with that because I had to get them removed, and with all of that I wasn’t in practice, so all of that went into what went wrong in the race,” Greene said.

“I felt really flat and because of those incidents I wasn’t able to go to those meets where I would prepare for the world champs. I think I was just rusty, honestly,” he added. 

Greene said the hardest part is picking himself up and getting back on the horse — something he said he intends to do with much intensity.

“At the end of the day I went out there, did my best and gave it my all. It wasn’t enough on that day and we have to take it on the chin, go back to the drawing board and assess how the entire year went with my coach, strength coach, see where we need to improve and remain healthy for a big year next year. Next year is one of the most important years in terms of most athletes, if not all athletes, so it’s just for us to analyse what we did this year and see where we have to tweak and try to remain healthy,” he said. Great Britain’s Zharnel Hughes won the heat in 10:08 seconds. Greene was Antigua and Barbuda’s lone representative at the World Championships.

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