Posted by
Ryan Brathwaite shows his country's jerssey in celebration
TrackAlerts.com journalist Clayton Clarke interviewed Alwyn Babb, coach of 2009 World Championships 110m Hurdles gold medalist Ryan Braithwaite. Babb spoke about how he met Brathwaite and the future of Barbados’ track & field.
TrackAlerts: Congratulations on the success of Ryan in Berlin how are you feeling about that achievement?
Alwyn Babb: Thanks, I feel elated because I have worked with him for several years and we’ve toughed it out in circumstances where motivation was necessary and to realize that our persistence and our hard work over the years have reached somewhere, makes me feel elated.
TA: Ryan had a particularly good year (2009) breaking the Barbadian 110m hurdles record several times, what was his preparation like?.
AB: His preparation and exposure to high level competition on a regular basis helped him to lower the mark to 13.14 secs, whilst taking the gold medal in Berlin. He is currently at Barton Junior college and is sponsored by Adidas.
TA: How did you first meet him and what potential did you see in him?
AB: I met him in 2003 as a student at the Lester Vaughn School, where I teach and during our P.E. (Physical Education) classes between the months of September and December we tend to do a lot of talent searching, one of the sessions was hurdling and we had one outstanding hurdler, Lorenzo Wickham, who was a medalist at the Carifta Games). The young boys tend to challenge each other and Ryan told Wickham he could beat him. When I saw his approach to hurdling, without being taught and based on what he envisioned hurdling was as a youngster; even though he did not win the challenge with Wickham, I saw something to work with.
TA: What was the next step?
AB: He was more involved with other sports, so getting him to train consistently as a hurdler only happened in the later part of the year (2004), that was the year he won the CAC (Central American and Caribbean Junior track and field championships held in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago) 100m hurdles gold as an under 17athlete. That year he did not make the Carifta team (for Barbados) which came down to lack of consistency in his training but after that effort at CAC, we saw some improvement in terms of how he trained. He then went on win the gold medal at the 2005 Carifta Games and set new records at the 2006 CAC and Carifta games in the under 20 boys 100m hurdles.
TA: In 2005 he won silver in the 100m hurdles at the World Youth Championships in Marrakesh, in Morrocco tell me about that.
AB: I did not go to that World Youth Games but based on his preparations and how he was working, I was expecting him to win the gold medal; but in the semifinals he picked up an injury to his foot. Going into the finals with a world leading world youth time of 13.34 seconds(+1.6m/s) -91.4cm] which he set in the heats, he was a clear favorite but sustaining the foot injury cost him the gold medal.
Ryan Brathwaite backs up his World Champion victory with a win in Thessaloniki
TA: Take me through the next year 2006.
AB: For CAC and Carifta he wasn’t challenged really – other than by the two Jamaicans (Andrae Collins and Keiron Stewart) – and they were adamant that they were going to beat him, so we worked a little harder that year and we saw the Carifta record being broken. At CAC he won the gold medal [in a new CAC record of 13.69 +1.6)]. I think he was unchallenged at that point in time (because) he was running with so much confidence and the Ryan I know even today believes that if he puts his mind to what he doing he is unbeatable.
He then attended the World Juniors in Beijing and that was what I called the low point of his career. He false-started out in the prelims; coming to World Juniors with outstanding times and performances there was a false start in his heat. On the second command, he came to set and fell out of his blocks. He did not make a move to run but the starter held him too long and he fell over on his face. That was a low point for him. He took it very hard but after a couple of months he got back in the groove and he put that behind him and trained even harder. In 2007 he went to Pan Am Juniors (in Sao Paulo, Brazil and won bronze) and Pan Am Senior( in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and made the finals) At these championships he qualified for the 2007 World Athletic Championships in Osaka Japan ( and reached the semifinals). In fact he was doing exceptionally well for a junior in the senior competitions.
Newly crowned World Champion Ryan Brathwaite of Barbados celebrates his first global title at 110m Hurdles with a National Record of 13.14
TA: How would you describe him?
AB: He is outgoing and easy to get along with. He isn’t one for stressful situations. If there is a problem he tries to get rid of it quickly. He is very jovial and even with all of this success that has not changed. He loves a good laugh. When we travel he goes about his business seriously but I make sure he has time for self.
TA: How is his response to training?
AB: I am so glad with the change. Ryan as a young man, (as) with most youngsters, if you asked them to train three, four days a week (and) two hours after school there is a lot of distraction and difficulty with commitment. In the early years he was not the best person to turn up at training but he was talented. What he was brought to the hurdles event he had natural ability and an understanding of hurdling like no other. But I have seen change, now that he recognized that running pays the bills (and) that he can make a living. When I speak to him about training instead of complaining how hard it is, is he laughs and jokes about it.
TA: Why he decide to go to the US?
AB: He didn’t indicate an interesting in going but I wanted him to be exposed to more competition because he was running out of challenges in the Caribbean among his peers.
TA: You also coached Shane Brathwaite (2007 World Youth Octathlon champion). Is he related to Ryan?
AB: No.
TA: You are a Sprints and Hurdles coach (IAAF Level IV).
AB: Yes. I enjoy coaching the sprints and the hurdles. I stuck with the sprints up to the 800m because I believe that the (NACAC) region tends to dominate from the 100m to the 400m and we should not discourage any other coach who likes the middle distance, but the sprints is where our strengths are. If you look at it, the Europeans tend to dominate all the throws with the Americans flipping in here and there. Then you have the Africans and some of the European countries taking over the middle distance and we see the dominance of Jamaica in the sprints and some of the sprint finals in the world where the NACAC region takes up all eight final spots with the odd person coming from outside of the region. That is where our strength is. Unless that changes I am going to stick to the sprint and the hurdles.
TA: Barbados has produced quite a few world class hurdlers in recent times, Andrea Blackett (1998 Commonwealth women’s 400m hurdles champion, a four-time World championship finalist and 100m/400m hurdles national record holder), Kierre Beckles (2009 Commonwealth Youth girls 100m hurdles champion, finalist at the 2008 World Junior and national junior record holder), Shane Braithwaite (2007 World Youth Octathlon champion, 2009 Pan American Junior 110m hurdles bronze medalist and national junior 400m hurdles record holder) . What do think is responsible for that?
AB: The hurdles is a rhythmic event and Barbadians have rhythm. Our culture in terms of (the) Crop –Over (festival) see some good gyration (laughs loudly). On a serious note, I don’t know what has been our seemingly progress in hurdles as opposed to other events.
The medallists in the men's 110m Hurdles (L-R) Terrence Trammell of the United States (silver), Ryan Brathwaite of Barbados (gold) and David Payne of the United States (bronze.)
TA: You were in Berlin when Ryan won the gold. What was your reaction?
AB: I was more nervous in the semifinals because it brought the memories of the false-start in the 2006 World Junior and believe it or not there was a false start in the semifinal. My concern really was not whether or not he would win a medal. My concern was whether he would hold up and get through to the final because I know once he was in the final, based on what he has been doing, consistently getting better from round to round, that he was going to medal. What color was the medal was another discussion. At the semifinal stage we were more concerned about getting past that stage and reaching the final.
TA: I think the whole field was buoyed by the non-finishing of Dayron Robles (World record holder) in the semifinals (due to injury). What was your reaction to that?
AB: As a coach I tend to do a lot of looking around in the warm up area and observing Dayron during the warm up I recognized that he not going over the hurdles well at all. I thought that was very strange and I knew that something was wrong. I kept it to myself. And then in the semifinals I saw it repeated. He took the same route (of not going over hurdles) I said to the athletic therapist who was there that he (Robles) was not going to get much further because I believe he was saving himself in the hope of whatsoever concerns he had would hold up in the rounds and not interfere with what was happening in terms of his injury. At that point I was not concerned because he was not at 100 percent.
TA: What about the Americans?
AB: They were who we were more concerned about because the Americans in terms of track and field are very competitive and territorial. They feel the hurdles and the 400m belongs to them. We kept our eyes on what they were doing. But again they didn’t run a lot (coming into Berlin) and that was unlike the Americans in terms of the hurdles. Knowing that the hurdles was a rhythm event, the more you run it is the more you’ll improve your rhythm. (And) those guys who came, David Payne and the other two (Terrance Trammell and Aries Merritt) who were there, they did not do a lot of running competitively which raised a couple of red flags in terms of how fit they were in respect to the hurdles. So although you knew they were very competitive, that stayed in the back of my mind. At that stage I also knew that Ryan was the only person in the world to run close to Dayron, in London (Aviva Grand Prix on 24th July). All the other races when he (Dayron) ran he was head and shoulders clear of his rivals. Ryan was the only person to run him down to the wire to the finish. With him out unfortunately because he was injured we decided that Ryan was next.
Share
