McLeod’s persistence paying off

Since the beginning of the year, Candice McLeod has been running a mill of 400m personal bests, seven to be exact.

There are high hopes among Jamaicans for an eighth as the slimly built sprinter chases glory in the final of the women’s one-lap event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games today at 9:35 p.m. in Tokyo (7:35 a.m. Jamaica time), at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium in Japan.

Among McLeod’s well-wishers is her coach, Fitz Coleman, whose other conditioned athlete to compete at the Games of the XXXII (32nd) Olympiad, Hansle Parchment, won the gold medal in the Nn’s 110m Hurdles final on Thursday.

Asked about McLeod’s chances of doing the same, Coleman, in his usual realistic manner, responded: “I would love to see that, but I’m not putting that out there and dangling that in front of her.”

However, people prepare with a purpose, and Coleman noted that while he is not applying any pressure, his 24-year-old charge is fully aware of the goal that they have been working for, which aligns with this very moment.

WHAT’S IMPORTANT

“When it comes to the Olympics and a final, as a coach you’re going to talk about that perfect race. But that’s not what is important when you get to an Olympic final,” Coleman said. “I’d say while I’d like to know that she displays some level of perfection, what I want is an excellent effort, an outstanding effort.

“The things you’ve worked on in the season, those are already embedded. What’s important here is to give that level of performance, and at the end of it, she knows she gave it her best,” he said. “A lot of these things don’t happen overnight. Just as how you train the body to be fit, you have to train the mind. You can’t have a dysfunctional system. You’ve to train the mind as well. It can be a mind game.”

McLeod’s advance, tracked by her times, says her mind and body are in sync, with a meteoric dash from a 53.35 second clocking in 2020 to her Tokyo Olympic semi-final run, a career-best 49.51 seconds. Prior to that, McLeod lowered her 400m PB on no fewer than six occasions.

AMAZING

“In a sprint when you take off three seconds off your time, that is amazing,” said track and field coach Raymond ‘KC’ Graham, who has been to two Olympic Games and five World Championships as a national coach.

“Every time she runs, she improves her PB. She has a lot of scope for improvement. She’s the future,” Graham observed. “She does not make anything around her affect her. When you see her at the track meets, she is always focused, very focused.”

Coleman identifies that very quality for the rise of McLeod, whose track career took off at Papine High School and continues at the University of the West Indies, where she is now pursuing her degree.

“You see the telltale signs –not late for training, doing the programme and ensuring it’s going to be done,” he said.

In a show of commitment, her coach shared: “One day we turned up for training and the rains came torrentially. I said, ‘It seems as if we’re not going to train. We’re flooded out today’, and her response was,’The rain must stop’. That’s her. She has worked hard. She has given it everything.

“She’s not in it for the show. She is doing it because she loves what she’s doing. She has worked hard at it and wanted to be where she is at now,” Coleman said.

“She knows her purpose is to go out there to win,” he reasoned. “Nobody goes out there to place second. The thing now is to get the mind and body ready to meet that challenge.”

audley.boyd@gleanerjm.com