Mills taking his time with Seville

Oblique Seville’s 2019 season has placed him in the psyche of athletics fans locally as one of the up-and-coming short sprinters who will be tasked to reclaim the legacy of Jamaica dominating the 100m in the world.

That legacy, which received significant boost from the greatness of sprinting legend Usain Bolt, experienced some hiccups last season when Jamaica failed to secure a medal in the men’s 100m at a global athletics event for the first time since 2003.

The 18-year-old became a prospect of leading the new generation of male sprinters when he blitzed to 10.13 seconds at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships last season to claim the Class One boy’s 100m title.

But the man who has been charged to help him realised the dream of becoming a dominant sprinter in the world is taking his time to ensure that the former Calabar High School star adjusts to the senior ranks properly.

NEW TRAINING FORMAT

“This kind of training is new to him, because normally at this time of the year, he would be in the buzz of Champs preparation so it will take him some time to adjust, but he is training OK,” Racers Track Club coach Glen Mills told The Gleaner.

Seville is set to run the first race of his senior career tomorrow at the Camperdown Classics, but Mills, who coached Bolt to the 100 and 200m world records, is not putting too much expectation on the youngster’s performance.

“I just see it as another avenue to get some training,” Mills said about Seville contesting the 400m. “It is basically a training session. I don’t expect anything special. We know what their levels of strength endurance are basically at, because they are training in a programme.

“Gibson Relays is later this month. We’ll probably use that as a better assessor. The sprinters are going to run the sprint relay.”

Seville experienced a small portion of the responsibility he could face as one of the nation’s leading sprinters when he faced off with American high-profile sprinting sensation Matthew Boling at the Pan American Under-20 Athletics Championships in San José, Costa Rica, last year.

Boling went into the meet with a wind-assisted 9.97 seconds that propelled him to international prominence and followed it up by beating Seville with a 10.11 seconds effort in the 100m, and also captured the 200m title in 20.31 seconds.