When your coach, who also trained a former world record holder and sub-10 seconds king, acknowledges that you are surpassing him at the same point in your career, it indicates that he sees you as someone extraordinary.
Ahead of the Jamaican Olympic Trials, coach Stephen Francis cautioned that Kishane Thompson was in exceptional shape, and the sprinter demonstrated this in the men’s 100m heats on Thursday night, achieving an outstanding personal best of 9.82 seconds (1.0m/s) to secure the fastest qualifying time for the semi-finals.
Read more: Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce & Shericka Jackson show impressive sub-11secs form at Jamaica Trials
In his season debut at the trials, Thompson displayed no signs of rust, sprinting to victory and joining Oblique Seville as the sixth-fastest Jamaican on the all-time list.
9.82 ‼️
Watch out for Kishane Thompson 🔥
The Jamaican clocked a stunning 9.82 (1.0) in the 100m at the Olympic trials – a personal best and the joint-second fastest time of the year so far 🇯🇲pic.twitter.com/SFVolrE5Co
— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) June 28, 2024
Thompson clocked 9.91 seconds in the heats at the national championships last season but did not show up for the semi-finals due to injuries. His coach mentioned that he was managing his injuries at that time, but now he is fully recovered.
Meanwhile, Seville, who finished fourth in the world championships, maintained his usual smooth form by clocking 9.98 seconds (0.4m/s) to win the first heat and advance as the second-fastest from the initial round.
Seville, who recently achieved a personal best at the Racers Grand Prix, now shares the third-fastest time in the world with Thompson, trailing behind Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala’s world-leading time of 9.79 seconds.
Ackeem Blake, the World Indoor 60m bronze medalist, was another sprinter who completed the race in under 10 seconds during the heats, recording a season’s best of 9.95 seconds to finish behind Thompson in the second heat. Julian Forte and Sandrey Davison both clocked 10.00 seconds to progress.
Forte comfortably won the third heat ahead of defending champion Rohan Watson, who finished with a time of 10.07 seconds, while Ryiem Forde claimed victory in the fourth and final heat with a time of 10.02, defeating Kadrian Goldson, who ran 10.12.
A notable athlete who failed to advance past the first round was Yohan Blake, the joint second-fastest man of all time. He was fifth in his heat in 10.21.