St Catherine’s Ulett aims for gold
St Catherine High School’s Asharria Ulett will be competing in her final year at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls Athletics Championships (Champs), and she aims to better the silver medal she won in the Class One girls’ 100 metres hurdles last year.
Ulett has helped improve the St John’s Road-based St Catherine’s track and field status in recent years, as they had their bestever showing at Champs with a fifth-place finish last year.
In a very close race a year ago, Ulett was beaten by Petersfield High School’s Alexis James, the Under-20 World Championships silver medallist of the event two years ago in Cali, Colombia.
At the recent Youngster Goldsmith Classics, Ulett finished second to event leader Habiba Harris of St Elizabeth Technical School in 13.97 seconds, as Harris won in 13.55. She was right there with Harris, but problems at the penultimate hurdle affected her winning chances.
“I was proud about the result as I have been bothered by an Achilles niggle, which has affected my preparation this season. I felt the pain at the start as I did some block starts. I ran through the race with the pain.
“The injury is getting better, and in training, I will just have to fix my start and execution, and once I do both, I am confident that I can finish my Champs career with a gold medal,” she said.
Asked about her expected clash at Champs with Harris, she replied: “For me, it is all about staying focused and in my zone, and once I do that, I will deliver.
“I want to lead my team from the front so that we can at least retain our top-five finish. With the bunch of girls we have, I am confident that we will achieve our objective. As usual, we want to put God first, as without Him, we cannot achieve our goals, and I am hoping our fans will come out to give us their usual good support,” she said.