BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – ANTOINE ADAMS stunned local track and field fans on June 20 when he ran a blistering 100m time of 10.35 at the National Track and Field Invitational Championship.
While the time was wind-aided, it was still the 21 year old’s quickest ever 100m and shattered his personal best time of 10.63. Last weekend in Tortola at the OECS Invitational Championship, Adams legally broke his personal best with a 10.58 even though the track was wet from three hours of rain earlier in the day.
In an exclusive interview with SKNVibes, the sprinter revealed that his breakthrough this season has been due in large part to a change in his training routine.
“I was always fast, but I didn’t have that much strength to hold the speed. Basically, my coach then focused on over distance training, lifting a lot of weights and just trying to get the muscles stronger.”
Like other top national athletes such as Meritzer and Tameka Williams, Adams trains under the tutelage of Coach Eric Francis at the Houston-based Elite Performance Training Centre and has been doing so since 2007.
The hard work with Francis also paid off in the 200m at the National Invitational, in which Adams set a new personal best mark of 20.86, down from 21.25. In all, Adams said he was taken aback by how much progress he has made this season with Francis’ help.
“I was personally surprised at my times, but my coach was not because he had the mentality for a few months now that I was ready to run. He told me I was physically developed and I just had to get my mental game together.
“Running those races, I just had to relax and let the body do what it has been trained to do. I needed to have the mentality that I was going to win today,” Adams said.
The sprinter has indeed gained confidence from his recent victories over top competitors, including fellow emerging Kittitian sprinter Brijesh Lawrence, and said that he looks forward to finishing strongly in 2010.
Among the races likely on Adams’ calendar for the remainder of the season are the upcoming NACAC U-23 Championships in Miami, the Central American and Caribbean Games in Puerto Rico and the Commonwealth Games in New Dehli, India.
While many athletes have bemoaned the October staging of the Commonwealth Games because that time of year is typically the off season, Adams said the he still hopes to do well and bring home a medal for St. Kitts-Nevis.
“My coach and I talked it over and he said he is going to make the necessary adjustments for me to hopefully get a medal or make the finals. October is still far off and it is going to be kind of hard to keep the legs fresh. I’ll be happy with anything in the [10.25] area,” he said.
