Jamaica National Trials 2010 June 26-27
I flew into Kingston Thursday June 25 for the trials. The weather was rainy all over the island and it continued all through Friday. I was able to visit my home town and spent the night before I ventured back to Kingston and got myself back to addressing the task at hand; another national championship.
The last encounter was a bit close, with only 1 tenth of a second separating 1st and 2nd. I finished the race in lane 4 or 5 a bit peculiar for the 800m, but apparently my counterpart kept drifting to the right down the final straight and I had to do the same to avoid collision. It may have been a case of blurred vision, the jury is still out :-)
But I digress, 2010 is a bit different from other years since the Common Wealth games was the only major Championship apart from the CAC games. The turn out was sparse with big hitters such as Bolt, and Campbell not attending. Several events were straight finals including the 800m, therefore I opted to run a development 400m on Saturday to get some turnover in for the 800m finals on Sunday. I’ve had decent success running the 4×400m relays those are always fun runs for me where you get to lay it all out on the track.
I won the development section basically acting like a rabbit in lane 7, the time wasn’t great but it got the job done. There are several talented 800m runners in Jamaica but opportunities for quality races are few, I knew the field hadn’t had a chance to race very fast this year so I may have to keep the pace honest, which is exactly what happened. I don’t like to lead the first lap but will do so if necessary. So said so done, coming off the curve I was in the lead going 25 pace, by this time I knew I had to make the adjustment and pick up the pace. I ended up finishing with a seasons best, but the time was still not what I was knew was in my legs.
So yes another national title under my belt, I am always grateful to God for affording me the opportunity and for continually being there to see me pull off a victory. This is my 4th consecutive win, but it is definitely not the end game, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done.
[Aldwyn Sappleton is a 7 time national champion who recently finished second at the Harry Jerome Classic.]
