By Morissa Lindsay
There is a new wave of sporting excellence blowing across Barbados with local track stars Sada Williams and Jonathan Jones both winning medals on the international stage and Williams signing as a brand ambassador for Nike.
During a sit down with the media yesterday, Williams revealed that she signed with sports giants Nike this month, as she along with former Coleridge and Parry Secondary and later Harrison College Schoolmate Jones who was also present in the interview, shared their thoughts on this year’s achievements.
A member of the MVP Track Club run by head coach Stephen Francis, one of the best in track and field coaching, Williams shared what it is like to live and compete in Jamaica. “Being in that environment is like it is highly competitive but it is also really good. I train with
some of the best athletes in the world, so that is really good for me.”
One of the greatest female athletes of all time for Barbados, Williams who was named Barbados Olympic Association Senior Athlete of the Year for 2021 and is currently the third fastest woman alive over 400m, continued her impressive showing into 2022 with a bronze medal at the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
The 24-year-old set a new national record of 49.75 seconds and also won gold at the Commonwealth Games in which she accomplished a meet record of 49.90 seconds which was part of her many highlights for this year.
Jones, the national record holder in the 400m
and 800m, is a student at Texas State University and has become a household name in his own right on the international stage.
During the interview, Jones spoke about the importance for athletes to focus on their mental health and the need to have psychologists in place whenever their services are needed. Like Williams, Jones is extremely pleased with the progress he has made this season compared to the past. As it relates to local support, Jones said he wants to see more of that and advised that going forward it would be good to celebrate the athletes even before they win medals or do well.
“I would say taking out a news ad (advertisement) after the fact isn’t really support. It is appreciated, obviously everybody would like to see themselves in the newspaper, everybody would like to see congratulations. But that doesn’t really help us to get there. We had to do what we had to do the entire year before to get to that moment. So, helping not just me but the younger athletes coming up, if you would help them then maybe we would get more medallists,” Jones explained.
Sometimes it seems that local athletes are taken for granted, having gone through a lot to reach a particular level and Jones touched on that point. “The same things on mental health, that is a lot that people don’t like to look at and then physically you could be training for four years and some people say ‘oh, Usain Bolt trained for four years for 9.58 seconds.’ So, it is a lot to ask of your body and your mind and unless you have been in the situation, it is hard to appreciate just how hard it is to compete on that level amongst the best in the world.”
Among the major highlights for Jones was running the 800m and setting a new national record of 1:45.83. Jones also won a bronze at the Commonwealth Games and made an appearance at his first World Championship.
morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb
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