Dennis and Davis impressive – Walcott
EVEN THOUGH an athlete he coached copped the only sprint double on the male side of Boys and Girls’ Championships last week, St Elizabeth Technical High coach Reynaldo Walcott was equally impressed with speed merchants from other schools.
In that regard, he pinpointed the 200 metres running of Kevona Davis of Edwin Allen Comprehensive High School. He also believes the decision for STETHS to miss the prestigious Gibson-McCook Relays was the right one,
I was told that Dennis is the first STETHS athlete to win the Class Two 100 metres since Mark Blake in 1992 and the first from the school to do the double since Carlos Samuels did a 100/200/400m triple in 1990, Walcott said, Dennis was calm and collected.
“I must admit I’m very guilty of not allowing them to dwell on their performances,” he explained of his policy of not allowing his athletes to get carried away with success.
Dennis dominated the 100 and 200m with fast times of 10.51 and 21.06 seconds.
That doesn’t mean coach Walcott doesn’t rate the Dennis double highly. “It’s definitely historic for him,” he evaluated. “It’s historic for me as well but guess what,” he offered, “I see other persons making history around him, so I guess it is normal in the context of other history makers.”
Speaking of Davis and her rivals in the Class Three 200m, he exulted: “I mean, I just watched a Class Three girl run 23.0 and could run 22 if she never slowed down to celebrate, and I just watched the second and third place girls run below 23.5 in that same race.”
WINNING TIME
The winning time was 23.07 seconds, 0.04 quicker than the old mark set by Anniesha McLaughln in 2001. The silver and bronze medal winners, Joanne Reid of St Jago High and Gabrielle Matthews of Hydel High, sped to times of 23.39 and 23.47 seconds respectively.
“One race?” he marvelled, “Can you imagine that?”
Dennis was no slouch either. In his 200m semi-final, he clocked 20.89 seconds and joined Jhevaughn Matherson and Christopher Taylor as the only boys to break 21 at Champs in the first year of Class Two eligibility.