By Neto Baptiste
Having matched his previous personal best of 10.00 seconds in the men’s 100-metre dash at the Miramar Invitational in Florida over the weekend, national sprinter Cejhae Greene said the goal remains dipping under 10 seconds heading into the Tokyo Olympics slated for July 23 to August 8.
“I equaled my personal best time so I’d be ungrateful and the response initially was oh snap! I didn’t get it this time but at the same time I am grateful equaling my personal best and I finished the race healthy and you have to take the positive out of everything. Yes, you want sub-10 but it didn’t happen this time and we’re happy that we got to race healthy and we got a good performance anyway. Obviously the goal is to get a personal best and to jump on the sub-10 but besides that it’s just about consistently running well this season,” he said.
Greene finished third behind of Americans Kyree King and Justin Gatlin who finished first and second, respectively. King clocked 9.97seconds while Gatlin finished in a time of 9.98 seconds.
The Antiguan, who finished just parts of a second behind Gatlin, said the field was one of the toughest he has faced so far this season, but added he was not deterred by the calibre of opponents.
“I’ve raced all these guys before at some point in my career so, for me going in, it was just another race and it was just for me to do what I could do and execute on that day and perform the best that I could. So in terms of being a better test it was more of a test to how I would react to the pressure right there, because everybody there is capable of running sub-10,” Greene said.
The sprinter, who qualified for the Olympic Games in March when he clocked 10.01 seconds at the Tropical Park Sprint Series held in Miami, Florida, said he is satisfied with his progress thus far.
“So far, we have run three really competitive races where I’ve run 10 seconds three times, so I am happy with the consistency right now and it shows that whatever me and coach have been working on, is working, and we just need to stick to it. So, to be able to do that with the high caliber class I’ve been going against is also something I am proud of,” he said.
Greene is the only Antiguan to meet the Olympic qualifying standard thus far. Young laser sailor Jalese Gordon, could receive a wildcard or solidarity entry into the games if a request by the National Olympic Committee is granted.