Triumph over trouble for Daley

Speed has never been a problem for Deandre Daley. The Herbert Morrison Technical High School student-athlete has, however, faced physical maladies that he and coach Claude Grant have held at bay this year, allowing him to accelerate without fear. The new found freedom allowed Daley to win the big Carifta Trials Under-20 Men's 100m at the National Stadium on Saturday night.

After a false-start delay that seemed to make the 17-year-old cautious in the blocks, Daley surged past the field and held his form all the way to the finish. The clocks stopped at 10.32 seconds.

Daley ran into a headwind measured at 1.6 metres per second. With no wind, the time would have been 10.23, which compared well to his crisp run in the semis -- 10.30 seconds.

Western fans first saw him at Western Champs in 2018. After placing second to Orlando Wint of St Elizabeth Technical High School in Class Four, he took the Class Three 100 and 200 metres in 2019. He won his 200m heat at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls' Athletics Championships (Champs), but couldn't report for the semi-final.

Last season, in his final year in Class Two, he won the Western Championships 100m but he crumpled to the track in the Champs semi-final. That disaster came after he won his heat in 10.74.

Wint won the final in 10.76.

Grant has a reputation for nurturing speed merchants. Nickesha Anderson, the 2004 World Under-20 Championships 200m runner-up, 2008 and 2010 World Under-20 100m winner Dexter Lee, Tovea Jenkins and Remona Burchell, 2018 World Indoor finalists in the 400m and the 60m, respectively, all passed through his hands.

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

Chiropractic treatment and special exercises have addressed the problem this season and the results are there as proof. The Trials was his fourth 100m race without defeat and his times have improved from 10.71 at Calabar High School in January, to 10.56 in February at the Camperdown Classics, to Friday's 10.30.

Like his older brother Mark-Anthony, Daley is a solid student.

"Academic wise, they are both good, so for me, it's just to get them prepared for the time when they exit school, they exit school with the necessary qualification academically," Grant said. "So he is doing well. It's just that what we want from them is just to do their best. We never push our athletes. We are just, naturally, trying to get them to be the best in high school and then they do move on."