MVP Track Club’s head coach Stephen Francis expressed surprise at the quality of the performances of his athletes led by Asafa Powell and Brigitte Foster-Hylton yesterday.
“They have outperformed the level of their conditioning,” Francis explained, but “the medals were not surprising,” he added.
He was speaking at the VIP Lounge of the Norman Manley International Airport, in the presence of sport minister and prime minister-designate Portia Simpson Miller; Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association president Howard Aris; and vice-president, corporate affairs & corporate communications at Cable & Wireless, Errol Miller.
Powell, the 100m world record-holder, won his first major individual medal on March 20 in Melbourne, Australia, when he clocked a comfortable 10.03 seconds.
Five days later, he anchored Jamaica to his second gold and second Commonwealth Games 4x100m medal. He got his first at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England, also anchoring that team which included Michael Frater, Dwight Thomas and Christopher Williams, to the silver.
Foster-Hylton, after three attempts at the Games, finally got her first gold. She was fifth in 1998, did not start in 2002, but demolished the field on March 24, sailing home after the last three hurdles to clock 12.76secs.
According to Francis, his athletes - who also included Frater, Ainsley Waugh and Winston Smith - and were all there at the VIP Lounge, “loved wearing the Jamaican colours and always do their best,” and predicted “more athletes will be coming to the forefront”.
For Powell, he just wanted to “get it over with, go back home and celebrate”.
Referring to Simpson Miller as his “second mother”, Powell said the members of the club were “all a team”, motivating each other, and thanked Jamaica for the support.
On disappointments by the Australians that he did not run under 10 seconds, Powell said his aim was “to win as comfortably as possible” and not hurt himself.
But he noted that if he was “pushed” and “under pressure” he would have run under 10 seconds.
Foster-Hylton, the Pan American Games champion and World Championship bronze medallist, said she felt special and “glad to be appreciated for her efforts”.
“Track and field can be a very unforgiving sport, and it involves hard work and sacrifices.”
Frater, Waugh and Smith also spoke - Frater and Smith running on the gold medal team and Smith competing in the preliminaries.
However, Paul Francis, assistant head coach and manager of MVP, told the Observer that he “can guarantee that Powell will break the world record again” and that Simpson, Frater and Foster-Hylton would run personal records.