St Catherine’s Davison aiming high

After pocketing a relay silver at last year's World Under-20 Championships, lanky Sandrey Davison is focused on speed this season. The St Catherine High School sprint star is aiming for maximum success at this year's World Under-20 event and is one of the contenders this weekend for top honours at the Carifta Trials.

Davison accelerated after a modest performance at Boys and Girls' Championships to a national under-20 100m title in June, and anchored Jamaica to second place in the 4x100m at the World Under-20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya.

Speaking after an easy Class One 100 win at the Sprint Fest last month, the 19-year-old said: "I'm just working on my form right now because I have a lot of big championships coming up this year. So I'm keeping myself fit for those championships. I'm aiming for a gold medal at the World Under-20 Championships."

At the Fest, Davison eased to victory in 10.59 seconds.

Aside from exiting at the semi-final stage at Boys' Champs, he had a fine 2021 season, clocking 10.61 at the Central Championships and 10.43 s at the National Under-20 Championships. However, he wasn't selected for the 100m in Nairobi where Jamaica's representatives were eliminated in the semi-finals.

Nevertheless, the silver has whet his appetite for more. "Yes, very much. That just taught me to get back to the drawing board and that I can work harder. Last year, I didn't work hard enough so I just came back this season, putting in the work and hopefully, I'll be successful," he stated at the Sprint Fest.

The 2021 NACAC Under-20 200m bronze medal winner was on duty for St Catherine at the recent Gibson McCook Relays. His contribution - a high-speed second leg - helped them to third place in 40.50 seconds in the 4x100m.

Another contender for a Carifta Games team spot is Deandre Daley of Herbert Morrison High School. Daley won the Western Champs Class One 100m last Saturday at St Elizabeth Technical in 10.59 seconds to add to the Class Two title he won in 2021. He and Herbert Morrison coach Claude Grant have been navigating past a physical problem that stopped him in the Champs semis and the results are promising.

"He has a toe-out carriage, so when he runs very, very fast, some of the muscles, they don't line up as fast and then it creates a problem," Grant said.

"We have been working with chiropractors so we will see what happens to him because you know, sometimes, it feels as if one of the foot is shorter," the coach added.

The hard work, which includes the 17-year-old prospect doing special exercises each day before practice, is paying off. "He has looked at his time and he told me that he wanted to run 10.52 and he did 10.56 the other day," Grant related. Daley's personal best 10.52 seconds came on February 12, into a headwind.

His previous best was 10.71.