WINT – Brought to STETHS by a dream

Brilliant sprinting at last week's 2021 ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls' Championships has put St Elizabeth Technical High (STETHS) back in the spotlight. Tremaine Todd, Orlando Wint and Sachin Dennis, all coached by Reynaldo Walcott, captured gold in the Class Three, Two and One 100 metres in a rare triple. The feat wouldn't have been possible if not for the dream that brought Wint to the Santa Cruz school.

Wint blitzed Hector Benjamin of Jamaica College to win in 10.76 seconds, a fast run considering the persistent headwinds inside the National Stadium during the five-day meet. '"His mother came to us at Kirkvine a couple of years ago and pretty much said she got a dream that she should send her son to STETHS,'' Walcott recalled of a chance meeting that brought Wint to the Santa Cruz school. 'Hey sir, do you know who the STETHS coach is? I need to find him.' And I said, 'Oh, I'm one of them', and she was like, 'I have a son who can run. He's in grade 6 now. St Jago has seen him already, they're interested but I went to bed and I woke up and for some reason, I had a vision that it is STETHS he's supposed to go'," he related smilingly.

Wint's teammate Javorne Dunkley completed a first and third finish for STETHS last Thursday.

Todd zoomed through a 1.3 metres per second headwind to the Class Three final in 11.03 seconds, and the slim youngster could be one to watch. '"He's one of those sprinters not like I've seen or worked with before. In the past, the guys that I would have had, they tend to be more power clad where they are good early and normally get out in front, catch me if you can. He's not that type of guy. He is more in that 200/400m range type of guy. So, it's been a bit different. I've had to pretty much train him a bit differently too,'' explained the coach.

When Dennis completed the triple by winning in Class One, Walcott was delighted. "I am actually more humbled than proud because we've been on the other side of those races where you hope to win, you hope to do well but it just doesn't work out. So, with all those three winning, I was extremely grateful and relieved that, you know, what they worked for and what they had aimed for, they had actually achieved it,'' he responded.

Coaching sprinters isn't easy, Walcott said. "The 100m is the most technical of sprints without barriers, where it's always something to work on, and whenever you do work on something, something else goes backwards and you just have to keep finding that balance. If not, you can find yourself at the back even though you have trained hard,'' said the STETHS sprint instructor.