‘Seize your moment, Jevaughn’

When Jevaughn Powell settles into his blocks for the 400 metres final at the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Division 1 Championships in Eugene, Oregon, today, the words of his University of Texas El Paso coach Davian Clarke will be in the forefront of his mind. Clarke, who won the NCAA crown in 1996, has told Powell to seize the moment.

Powell, the 2017 ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Championships Class Two gold medallist, hustled through the last 100 metres to move from the back of the field to third with a time of 45.47 seconds. Ahead of him, Champion Allison hammered out a personal best 44.29 to deny defending champion Randolph Ross, who eased off to a time of 44.43.

Also under 45 was Barbadian Jonathan Jones, who won another heat in 44.97.

After Powell had won his section of the West Regional Qualifier with the first Jamaican sub-45 time of the year – 44.87 on May 27, Clarke explained what it would take to compete with athletes like Ross, who won last year in 43.85 seconds. “At a Championships, it comes down to who has the most heart,” he began. “I remember when I won the NCAA and I beat Gregory Haughton, Gregory had a PR of 44.5. At the time, my PR was 45.2 and so nobody expected me to win,” the 1996 and 2004 Olympic 400 metres finalist recalled of an all-Jamaica matchup when he was running for the University of Miami with Haughton as defending champion for George Mason University.

Clarke seized his moment in 1996 with an early surge and won in 45.29 seconds, just 0.05 off his personal best at the time.

According to the coach, Powell is in the same position in the same location where he won 26 years ago. “Nobody expects you to win. There is no pressure but at the same time, you go out there, you risk it and you see what you can get done,” Clarke said. “And if the people that have the pressure of winning, they choke up, you step to the front and you seize your moment.”

Whatever the result, today’s final is an opportunity for the tall 21-year-old Powell to grow. “So obviously, that’s a storybook ending. Everybody would want that but you know, you just go out there and just be happy to be able to compete injury free and learn and continue to grow, and as a sophomore in college, he just has to work on getting better. You can’t ask for anything more than that right now,” Clarke added.

Success for Powell or Jones would be the first for a Caribbean 400m runner since Deon Lendore of Trinidad and Tobago in 2014.

Powell will start the final in lane 3, with Allison, Jones and Ross in lanes 6, 7 and 8, respectively.