GUYANA’S rising track and field star, Emanuel Archibald outran former World Champion and Olympic gold medalist, Yohan Blake on Saturday to record a new personal best in the 100m, moments after copping gold in the long jump – his pet event at the Camperdown Classics in Kingston, Jamaica.
Archibald, who studies at, and competes for the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, opened the day with a season best jump of 7.67m which was enough to secure the gold medal at the King of the Ring track meet in Kingston, Jamaica.
“The event was a close one but I stuck to my plan and executed what I was taught during training,” he shared with the Guyana Chronicle. His personal best in that event is 7.88m and his goal for this year is to reset Guyana’s national record which is 8.07m.
But according to his coach, Kerry Lee Ricketts, the long-jumper actually cleared 8m at the event.
“All his jumps would have been 8m but he jumped from way in front of the board and they only start measuring from the board. Also the conditions weren’t conducive; there was a lot of head wind and so on” he said.
Coach Ricketts said that at present, ‘Amo’, as he is more popularly known, is doing well, adding, “He has been jumping 8m in training but it is just a matter of time before he gets that transition out from training to a track meet.”
But that was not the end of the day for the young track and field superstar. Moments later, he laced up his sprinting spikes and headed to the starting blocks to compete in the 100m at another track meet – Camperdown Classics.
Despite coming out of the blocks late, Archibald was able to find perfect form halfway through the race and execute with great finesse. Running in lane six, the sprinter dipped to a new personal best of 10.22 seconds, finishing second behind United Kingdom’s (UK’s) Zarnel Hughes (10.18 seconds) and ahead of Olympic gold medalist Yohan Blake (10.32 seconds).
According to Coach Ricketts, a lot of technical work has gone into his training for the 100m this year. He said that there were a lot of issues with Archibald coming out of the blocks, his drive phase, and his sprinting mechanics.
“For now we are looking at the technical issues and working on those and have him break the long-jump and 100m records in Guyana. My plan is not for him to be the best for Guyana or the Caribbean but the best in the world” Coach Ricketts shared.
Two weeks ago, Archibald opened his track season with an impressive time of 6.74 in the 60m dash – ahead of Olympian Delano Williams of Great Britain.
Following that race, he had shared that his goals for this year were to record new personal bests in the 100m and 200m, and claim the national record in the long jump. Of these, he has two more to accomplish – to reset his personal best in the 200m which is 20.98 and become Guyana’s national long-jump record holder.
