Rowe sharpening up for Champs

It seems like an age has passed since Kishay Rowe won gold and silver in the 800 and 1500 metres at ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Championships (Champs) in 2019. Perhaps that’s why Rowe, a senior at Alphansus Davis High School, allowed herself a rare smile last week when she won the Class One 800m at Central Championships.

The 2019 Carifta Games Under 17 runner-up kicked past the Edwin Allen High School duo of Amoya Jamieson and Rackiesha Simms to win in two minutes 11.38 seconds. The success made her coach Megan Wilson-Copeland smile as well.

“It was satisfying for me,” the coach said at the GC Foster College of Physical Education and Sport, “and I think what Kishay did this afternoon has helped her to motivate her in terms of her plans for Champs in the next couple of weeks.”

She travelled behind the pace set by the Edwin Allen girls at 64.6 seconds on purpose.

“She had a lot of work in her legs, so our plan was for her to just go out and just run the race as comfortably as possible and I know that she has a lot of speed. Once she’s close to them and when she’s ready to move she will move, and the speed that she has, I don’t think most of them in that race this afternoon have that speed,” the coach revealed.

Champs has been an unhappy hunting ground for Rowe since 2019. When the high school athletics showcase returned after the 2020 COVID-19 break, she finished fourth in both the Class Two 800 and 1500m in 2021. Last year, her first season in Class One saw her place fourth in both finals.

Simms, Holmwood’s JodyAnn Mitchell and Shone Walters of St Mary High finished ahead of her in the Class Two 800/1500m double, with Mitchell ahead of her twice in 2022. The smooth-striding Holmwood girl took the Central Champs 1500m, beating Rowe into third with a record run timed in four minutes 30.31 seconds, and then skipped the 800m. Incidentally, Mitchell and Rowe have almost identical 800m personal bests, 2.09.19 for Mitchell versus 2.09.23 for Rowe.

EASTERN CHAMPIONSHIPS

Simms and Walters have good credentials too. Simms did the Class Two 800/1500m double in 2021 and 2022 and Walters hustled a Class One 800m record of two minutes 11.71 seconds on her own at Eastern Championships. When they all meet at Champs Natoya Goule’s Class One 1500m record – 4.29.81 – could be under threat for the first time since it was set in 2010.

Rowe will benefit from coach Wilson-Copeland’s plans to sharpen her speed. Asked about the training that will carry her star through this weekend’s Carifta Trials and onward to Champs the coach replied, “The work continues. We just have to sharpen up certain things, race strategies and all of that stuff.”

If things go well, Rowe could be smiling on the podium at Champs once more.