Edwin Allen’s Dyke issues injury warning
MICHAEL DYKE, the head coach for defending inter-secondary girls’ athletics champions, Edwin Allen High, has warned that the persistent rain which has been affecting the island since May last year could lead to several athletes sustaining injuries this track season.
Dyke said he suspects that like Edwin Allen, many schools were not able to train through the torrential rains in the first term of school.
“The good thing about it is that it is affecting all the teams because the rain is not just concentrated in Clarendon. It is right around the country,” Dyke said.
He said this may cause coaches to cram their preparation in the next few months, which may lead to injuries.
“I am really concerned about injuries because coaches might try to rush their programmes to get athletes ready for Champs, and that will definitely lead to injuries,” Dyke explained.
The veteran coach said that though they are used to torrential rain in Clarendon in the first term of school, it is first time in years that it has rolled over into January.
“As we are speaking, it is raining. The fact that we are from an area where we always get a lot of rain in that first term of school, we were able to manoeuvre that and work around it, but we are not accustomed to it around this time. So it has become a challenge now in terms of the rain continuing to fall throughout this period in January,” Dyke told The Gleaner.
He said, however, that he has been able to keep his girls fit.
“We are still trying to find creative ways of maintaining fitness and strength and stuff like that,” Dyke said.
Danny Hawthorne, coach of Wolmer’s Boys’ School, has also been exploring all avenues to keep his boys fit.
“The track is wet, but we have to find ways to get through training,” Hawthorne said.
He has reduced the volume of highintensity workouts as the wet track may cause injuries.
“As we speak, we are on the track, but we are not doing any high-intensity work,” Hawthorne explained.
“The good thing about it is that it is affecting all the teams because the rain is not just concentrated in Clarendon. It is right around the country.”