Sada on track

Barbados’ track and field queen Sada Williams is perfectly poised to medal at two of the world’s biggest track and field meets.

That is the view of veteran athletics trainer and former national head coach Alwyn Babb, who strongly believes that the 25-year-old Commonwealth Games champion is peaking at the right time with the World Championships just over a month away.

His comments have come following Williams’ recent impressive run of form which has seen her clock season’s best times in her last three outings.

Last Friday, Williams copped gold in 50.80 seconds – an Olympic qualifying time – to set a meet record at the 34th Meeting Internazionale Sport e Solidarieta at the Stadio G Teghil, Lignano Sabbiadoro, Italy, and two days later she finished fifth in a season’s best time of 50.34 seconds at the Wanda Diamond League in Poland.

And on Tuesday, Williams equaled that time on her way to a gold-medal winning run at the 13th Gyulai Istvan Memorial in Hungary.

The World Championships are scheduled to be held from August 19 to 27 in Budapest, Hungary.

Former national head coach Alwyn Babb believes Sada Williams can medal at both the World Championships and Olympic Games.

Williams won bronze at the 2022 World Championships which were held in the US.

She barely missed out on a spot in the finals at the 2022 Olympics in Japan, after being the ninth fastest finisher.

In a telephone interview with Barbados TODAY, Babb, who last served as head coach of the athletics team at the 2019 World Championships and who has coached at every major international event, said he was impressed with Williams’ recent progress.

“I think that you have to look at the World Championships first. She is the defending bronze medalist and as you follow her progress you can see her dropping her times gradually and I think that is good handling by her coaches and with a year away from the Olympic Games, once she remains healthy I believe she will be a contender for a medal,” Babb said.

“A year in track and field is a very long time as you may see in performances from athletes who were medalists [last year] but this year they seem to be struggling. I think that her approach is measured and I am hoping that she remains as healthy as possible, not over-raced or under-raced, but her preparation needs to be on point and I think if that happens it will ultimately lead to a medal.

“…You are seeing that she is rounding into the type of shape she was in prior to last year’s Commonwealth and World Championships. I think that her approach is measured, it is the right way, it is the right approach by any coach to wants to see their athlete perform at the best at major championships,” the well-respected track and field coach added.

Additionally, Babb said quarter-miler Jonathan Jones was also capable of bringing home a medal.

He explained that even though the 24-year-old Jones was not having the best of seasons, he said this could be due to his rigorous college demands at the University of Texas.

“We are producing a good crop of quarter-milers outside of the traditional 100 and 200 metre events. Jonathan Jones is having what many may call a down year, but that is not a bad thing in terms of recovering from the college demands and then going into a full senior representation for your country and I believe he may have been suffering from the effects of those number of races,” Babb said.

“He is one that once he recovers can be a contender and if in the 400 metre hurdles Rasheeme Griffith continues to show the necessary improvement and he can break the 48-second barrier then we can see him moving beyond the first round.”

randybennett@barbadostoday.bb ]]>