Sprint legend predicts standout year for Thompson

KINGSTON, Jamaica – Former Olympic 100 metre champion and world record holder, Donovan Bailey, strongly believes that Jamaican track star Kishane Thompson will dominate over the distance this season.

His comments have come following Thompson’s record-breaking performance last weekend, where the 24-year-old Olympic and World Championship silver medallist ran a world best 14.92 seconds in the 150m at the Miramar Invitational in Florida, bettering the 14.97 set by Jamaican-born British sprinter Linford Christie in 1994.

Impressively, it was the first 150m event of Thompson’s career.

The burly sprinter has yet to open his season in the 100m, but starred in the 60m at last month’s World Indoor Athletics Championships in Poland, where he clocked a personal best 6.45 seconds to claim silver.

Bailey, who won 100m gold for Canada at the 1996 Olympics and the 1995 World Championships, said he’s impressed with Thompson’s early-season form, especially given his physical build.

“What I loved about what he’s done is his consistency – his consistency in relaxing, his consistency in getting out of his drive phase and knowing where his body position is, and this came through in the 150m,” Bailey said on his YouTube channel.

“Kishane’s a big dude. When I competed, my competition weight was 209 pounds, and he’s a bigger guy than I am, so I think that it’s incredible that he can muster such incredible strength around the corner, come off the turn, and maintain it.”

While this year isn’t a major championship year, Thompson will compete on the circuit in the Diamond League and potentially the Commonwealth Games in July, and in the World Athletics Ultimate Championships in September.

He is expected to face his biggest test of the season so far when he battles Botswana’s Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo, and American sprint stars Christian Coleman and Kenny Bednarek at the Xiamen Diamond League in China next month.

However, Bailey says Thompson will be hard to beat as he continues to perfect his sprinting technique.

“I think Kishane is ready. I think that he’s doing some speed endurance running or training for him to relax when he gets to that 75- 80m mark and let the race come to him.

“Although you’ll have someone like Christian Coleman, or some of the other shorter athletes that could probably match him over the first 30m, when he gets up, adjusts, and allows everything to come to him, he’s the best guy, top speed-wise,” Bailey said.

“He’s going to be good this summer. I just kind of like what he’s doing, and he’s kind of embracing his total speed and embodying who he’s supposed to be.”

CMC