By Neto Baptiste
National sprinter Cejhae Greene, has assured that he has no intentions of switching coaches following statements by head of the Antigua and Barbuda National Olympic Committee (NOC) EP Chet Greene that the body has had discussions with the athlete regarding his current set up.
Speaking on the Good Morning Jojo Sports Show, Cejhae clarified that although he has not had any talks with the NOC regarding any possible change, he is more than satisfied working with current coach, Henry Rolle.
“I can’t say I am dissatisfied because we’ve run fast. I’ve run my personal best twice under him, I’ve been in more diamond leagues than I’ve ever been in my life, so we’re happy. There have been some pitfalls on where we need to work on, but that’s part of the learning curve. I’ve been with him for one year so I am still learning him, and he is still learning me, and he has been communicating with me saying Cejhae this is where I think we went wrong this year, and this is where I think I want to go in the next season, so we could be a lot more consistent so the conversation and the feedback that we are having is really good,” he said.
The sprinter, who was eliminated in the first round of the 100 meters at the recent Tokyo Olympics, said that a number of factors that would not have been visible to most spectators and supporters worked against his success at the games.
“Sometimes you just don’t know what happens on the back end, so if I don’t come out and say that I am hurt or that I was hurt two weeks ago, then nobody knows and everyone says maybe he peaked too early. Sometimes you get caught up in Europe like, this year, I was stuck in Europe for two weeks, not being able to train, not being able to come over and actually, that led to me coming back to Antigua and seeing my family because we couldn’t get back to the States, and couldn’t get back to coach, so all of that plays into not being able to continue your routine and getting that one-on-one attention, so there is a lot of things on the back end that people really don’t see and take into consideration,” Cejhae said.
As for what’s next, Cejhae said he will take a few weeks of deserved recuperation time before jumpstarting preparations ahead of the next season.
“Me personally, I’d sit down for two weeks to actually let my body recover, because you can imagine the strain you put on yourself throughout the season, and I was just saying how many times I got hurt last year and it’s because of the strain you put your body under. I would probably sit down for two weeks trying to fully recover and to get some actual rest, because you won’t get a rest once you start practicing, and after that you start what you call active recovery because you can’t lose everything during the off season,, but off season don’t mean you sit down and get fat. What I personally like to do is play unconventional sports to keep my fitness up,” the athlete said.
Cejhae ran 10.01 in March to set a then-world-leading time at the Tropical Elite Sprints Meet in Miami. He was however, eliminated in round one of the 100 meters at the Tokyo Olympics after clocking 10.25 seconds to finished sixth in heat six of the games’ marquee event.