Guyana’s lone participant at the South American Junior Track and Field Championships, Stephan James, will be bringing home a bronze medal when he returns this week after placing third in the 400m in Colombia on Saturday.
Stephan James
The 18-year-old Running Brave track club athlete clocked 47.79 seconds for third place in the 400m final, which was won by 19-year-old Anderson Freitas Henriques of Brazil in 46.59s. James was edged out of second place by hometown favourite Bernardo Baloyez, who clocked 47.05. James also clocked 22.43 in the 200-metre final, placing seventh.
The South American Junior Track and Field Championships marked the third time James represented Guyana overseas. It was also his third major competition of the year. In his first two major meets, James justified his selection by bettering his personal record each time out.
His breakout meet was the 2011 CARIFTA Games in Jamaica, where he clocked 48.16 in the 400-metre race and made the Boys’ Under-20 final. In the final of that race, he placed fourth, barely missing a medal by one spot. That performance confirmed his attendance for both the South American and Pan American Junior Championships which were to be held one week apart in July. The South American Juniors had to be postponed to last weekend, but James still managed to peak at the Pan Am Junior Championships in Florida, where he clocked his personal best of 47.27 in the heat and eventually placed sixth in the final. In the final, however, James had cramps and was unable to make the podium or better his personal best time. James’s coach, Julian Edmonds, said that his athlete is capable of running much faster than 47 seconds in the quarter-mile event, and would have done so if he had been in a different phase of his training season.
Edmonds explained that James had quite an exhausting track season, which began since about February with CARIFTA trials and other local meets. James had to stay in form to gain selection for the CARIFTA Games, and then keep in form to compete at junior Pan Am.
The unfortunate postponement of the South American Championship put more pressure on James to deliver another elite performance that late in the track season, according to Edmonds.
Edmonds’s method was to allow James to rest for an entire week before recommencing training for the South American championships.
While a competition of this magnitude would have required an athlete to undergo competition preparation (maximum intensity with shorter rest period and less repetitions), Edmonds said that James had already begun his off-season training programme and did not bother to divert from it. The coach added that it was good that James was just 0.5s off his personal best time at this stage in the season, although he expected him to turn in a faster time.
The off-season workout is to ensure that James is properly prepared for next year’s CARIFTA Games, according to Edmonds. James is also expected to compete at the Guyana Teachers Union’s (GTU) 51st Annual Track and Field Championships later this year.
Comments are closed.