LONDON – After knocking off some of the rust during their first hurdles training session yesterday morning at the Newham Leisure Centre in East London, Greggmar Swift and Shane Brathwaite said they were targeting a spot in the finals of the men’s 110 metres hurdles.
Brathwaite, who is based at Texas Tech University, said he has taken some time to get accustomed to the different temperature, but he was pleased with his session, which lasted just over two hours.
“Today [yesterday], was pretty good,” Brathwaite told MIDWEEKSPORT.
“I had a few little bumps at first, but then my last three runs were pretty good. The more runs I get, the better I should be.
“My main goal is to run every round as fast as I can, hopefully get a personal best or make the finals.”
Brathwaite was the North America Central America and Caribbean (NACAC) champion and he called it “a good season” because he has been consistently running 13.4 seconds all year.
Swift, the first Summer Olympics track athlete from Indiana State University, and only the second since Larry Bird played basketball for the Dream Team in 1992, said he was also having a good season, but he had set high goals from the start.
“I’ve set very high goals, not only for the Olympic Games, but from the beginning of the season,” he said.
“For the Olympic Games, I told myself nobody here is really better than me other than on paper and I aspire to be in the final and competing for a medal.”
Swift was not as happy as Brathwaite with his training session.
“Right now, I am just getting back into hurdling, so my training session was a bit up and down.
“I had a few good runs over one and two, but when I get down to four, five and six, I hit a couple hurdles. So I just need my legs to get back where they were supposed to be.”
He won the bronze medal at NACAC and believed hitting a few hurdles cost him a better quality medal.
“The race was my second fastest legally for the season, 13.54, the time. I was quite pleased because my coach told me not to (do a personal best) at NACAC because it doesn’t mean anything, but to ‘PB’ at the Olympic Games.
“I really expected more. I gave 100 per cent at NACAC, I hit a couple hurdles and it cost me a better medal, but I’m satisfied with that. My teammate Shane Brathwaite got the gold medal and I’m happy that the Barbados flag was at No. 1.”
The session was conducted by head athletics coach Alwyn Babb, who accompanied both hurdlers to a meet in Belgium last weekend where Swift was second in 13.81 and Brathwaite third in 13.89.
“That meet was just to knock off some rust off the athletes after Nationals,” Babb said.
“It was useful in terms of [handling the] weather and the conditions we are going to face. Belgium was a bit chilly. They used it as a training session and were second and third, respectively,” he said.
“The time wasn’t anything to speak about, but the important thing is that they recognize that they need to do some work and adjust to the potential weather conditions that may present themselves ahead.”
While accommodation at the Olympic Village was of a high standard, Babb said they were struggling to adjust to the time difference, which is six hours ahead for Brathwaite.
“The accommodation is pretty comfortable and we are now adjusting to the change of time which is five hours ahead of Barbados. At this time, we are trying to get the bodies of the athletes accustomed to the change in time zone,” Babb said.
“We have been doing a number of things to stay awake, not to fall asleep too early, so we can really get into our training regime.
“So far, we are using the time for training, coming early in the morning because the first round is going to be at 10:15 a.m., and then we are going to switch to a couple of evening sessions when the semi-finals start around 7:15 p.m.
“They did a number of drills and some runs over four and six hurdles. We expect some of the rust will still be there, but over the coming week, we will work on cleaning up the runs over the hurdles – over as fast and between as fast as possible.”
Hurdler Ryan Brathwaite and 100 metres sprinter Ramon Gittens are yet to join the Barbados team. Gittens is in the United States training with his coach.
“I’ve been speaking to him every day. He said his training sessions are going extremely well. Right now, he says he is in sub-ten shape based on the 60-metre time,” said Babb.
“Ryan Brathwaite is presently in Austria with Chalise Jordan and his training group . . . and they are doing extremely well. They had a good session of hurdling [Monday] he is easy today [Tuesday], but the intensity has gone up a bit,” Babb added.
Physio Wayne Harris said he hasn’t had to deal with major injuries.
“There are no major injuries . . . right now, just a few things that we are working on. Everyone isn’t perfect yet, but everything is going relatively smoothly right now.”
