Coach Ricketts opens jumps centre

There's a new athletic club in Jamaica and it's dedicated to the jumps. The new entity is the Ricketts Performance Centre and its founder is Kerrylee Ricketts, who has coached his wife Shanieka to the upper reaches of world class in the triple jump.

The opening of the centre follows the end of his coaching contract with The University of the West Indies last year. "I decided, well, I still have some athletes who basically were students there, and I still have Shanieka. So, basically, I kind of reduced the group and thought I'd carry on with others who I see who have a lot of potential, you know what I mean, that can actually move to the next level to join Shanieka and Emanuel, because remember Emanuel Archibald of Guyana, national record holder and 100 metre champion and for long jump as well," he explained.

The Ricketts Performance Centre athletes list includes 2019 Diamond League winner Ricketts, 8.12-metre long jumper Archibald and his fellow Guyanese Domon Williams, Jamaican Adrian Riley, and promising St Lucian Sandisha Antoine.

The idea started to brew last year. "So basically, they had some Velocity Fests last year and I decided, okay, we'll just compete. Rather than compete unattached, I just created the centre just see what happened," Ricketts recalled.

Asked about former decathlon and 2019 Pan-Am long jump finalist Riley, Ricketts said they had been working together for some time. "Post Calabar, he stayed in Jamaica for several months before he actually went up on a scholarship. So I worked with him that period of time. I was with him at Trials he registered his personal best at Trials here and then every year when he comes down, he'd basically come and work with me for three weeks leading up to Trials", he detailed. Now that he has completed his time at the University of Texas San Antonio, Riley has joined the Ricketts programme on full-time basis.

In 2019, Riley boomed a personal best of 7.95 metres to take second place at the Jamaican Senior Championships. It booked his ticket to the Pan-American Games in Lima, Peru, where he placed eighth. Ricketts clearly thinks Riley, younger brother of 2014 Commonwealth 110-metre hurdles champion Andrew, can go far. "I always want to coach someone who's big, powerful and technical," said the coach.

Still based at the UWI/Usain Bolt facility in Mona, he is enthused about his centre. "As a performance coach, it's always good to have talented athletes to actually develop," he said. Moreover, he has seen enough in training and at the first of the JAAA Qualification Trial meets to convince him that big jumps will come. "So, of course, I'm happy, I'm excited. I've seen results in training and I know, not just him, all the athletes, I know what they're capable of doing."