By Neto Baptiste
National sprinter Cejhae Greenesaid that he was surprised after he realised he had clocked a world leading 10.01 seconds in the men’s 100 meters at the Tropical Elite Sprints Meet held in Miami, Florida, over the weekend.
“I ran the first round in 10.27 and after that race we realised some small mistakes since we hadn’t competed in so long, and coach said, ‘if you just execute and do these stuff and focus on what you need to focus on then you would run fast’. In my head, I expected maybe 10.1 or 10.2, so when I saw 10.01 I was like wow, this is just start. We haven’t been doing a lot of stuff to actually really amp up and be ready to compete, so it’s really exciting,” he said.
The time, the fastest in the world so far, qualified the Antigua and Barbuda athlete for the 2021 Olympic Games slated for July 23 to August 8 in Tokyo, Japan.
The former Princess Margaret School (PMS) student, in critiquing his performance, highlighted both the good and not so good areas of his race.
“I got a really good reaction [start], one of the best reactions I believe I am ever going to get, to be honest. But one part I really do need to work on a little more is staying relaxed towards the end, really getting the knees up and finishing really strong. So, for the most part, just maintaining and trying to execute good races,” Greene said.
Despite the mammoth achievement in only his first outdoor race this year, Greene said there will always be pressure to perform.
“I mean, the pressure is always there to do well and even from myself because I have high expectations of myself, but now, with the pressure from the outside really isn’t there because I expect to do well. It’s not the first time I would have done 10.0 so me having high expectations of what I want to accomplish, you’re aware of it but you have to just keep going out there and doing your best each time because that’s really truly all that you can do,” he said.
Greene finished the race ahead of Fred Kerley and Jeremy Bascom who clocked 10.11 and 10.51 seconds, respectively.
Also, it was earlier reported that junior sailor Jelese Gordonhas received a wildcard entry into the Olympic Games but reports are that the NOC is still awaiting confirmation on its request for the slot.