Triumph over trouble for Daley

Speed has never been a problem for DeAndre Daley. The Herbert Morrison Technical High School student athlete has, however, faced physical maladies that he and coach Claude Grant have held at bay this year, allowing him to accelerate without fear. The new-found freedom allowed Daley to win the big Carifta Trials under-20 100 metres on Saturday night at the National Stadium.

After a false-start delay that seemed to make the 17 year-old cautious in the blocks, Daley surged past the field and held his form all the way to the finish. The clocks stopped at 10.32 seconds.

Daley ran into a headwind measured at 1.6 metres per second. With no wind, the time would have been 10.23, which compared well to his crisp run in the semis – 10.30 seconds.

Western fans first saw him at Western Championships in 2018. After placing second to Orlando Wint of St Elizabeth Technical in Class Four, he took the Class Three 100m and 200m in 2019. At Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships, he won his 200m heat but couldn’t report for the semi-final.

DISASTROUS RUN

Last season, in his final year in Class Two, he won the Western Championships 100m, but he crumpled to the track in the Boys and Girls’ Championships semi-finals. That disaster came after he won his heat in 10.74. Wint won the final in 10.76.

Grant has a reputation for nurturing speed merchants. The 2004 World Under-20 Championships 200m runner-up, Nickesha Anderson; 2008 and 2010 World Under-20 100m winner Dexter Lee; Tovea Jenkins and Remona Burchell, 2018 World Indoor finalists in the 400m and the 60m, respectively, all passed through his hands.

Speaking last month, Grant explained Daley’s physical issues. “He has a toe-out carriage, so when he runs very, very fast, then the turnover, some of the muscles, they don’t line up as fast and then it creates a problem,” Grant outlined.

Chiropractic treatment and special exercises have addressed the problem this season, and the results are there as proof. The Trials was his fourth 100m race without defeat, and his times have improved from 10.71 at Calabar High School in January to 10.56 in February at the Camperdown Classic, to Friday’s 10.30.

Like his older brother Mark-Anthony, Daley is a solid student. “Academic-wise, they are both good; so for me, it’s just to get them prepared for the time when they exit school. They will exit school with the necessary qualifications academically,” Grant said.

“So he is doing well. It’s just that what we want from them is just to do their best. We never push our athletes. We are just, naturally, trying to get them to be the best in high school, and then they do move on,” he said, articulating the Herbert Morrison approach to student athletics.