By Neto Baptiste
Legendary former West Indies batsman Sir Vivian Richards, has commended sprinter Cejhae Greene on his achievement following his 10.01 seconds run at the Tropical Elite Sprints Meet held in Miami, Florida over the weekend.
The performance qualified the athlete for this year’s Olympic Games slated for July 23 to August 8 in Tokyo, Japan.
Sir Viv, who spoke with Greene live on the Good Morning Jojo Sports Show, encouraged the athlete to push on and focus on achieving the ultimate goal.
“Well done, man, in terms of the times that you would have clocked and to do so in such impressive fashion, we are all proud of you. We are just hoping and praying also that you remain injury-free because we all know that when you’re injury-free you can accomplish almost anything; so we’re hoping that you stay fit and God gives you the guidance to go ahead. I know you have the substance to get it done and I know Antigua and Barbuda is behind of you, for sure,” he said.
Sir Viv, scorer of 8540 runs in 121 Tests for the West Indies, said it is always a proud moment whenever an Antiguan achieves.
“I remember even the first time we had a world champion in Maurice Hope. I was in England at the same time and up to this day I remember the name of the guy he beat. It was an Italian by the name of Rocky Mattioli, so all these things register to me. When I heard of Joella Lloyd the other day, there was a proud feeling. It gives me goose pimples with especially what Cejhae would have achieved as well just coming from this small nation,” he said. The time, fastest in the world so far, saw Greene finishing ahead of Fred Kerley and Jeremy Bascom who clocked 10.11 and 10.51 seconds respectively.