SWEPT in limbo

André Lowe, Senior Staff Reporter

Head coach, founder takes up six-month job in Daegu

Club lacks source of finance

SWEPT Track Club's head coach and founder, Okeile Stewart, has dismissed rumours that the fledgling club is on the verge of being disbanded.

In fact, he has sought to assure that the development of the club's athletes remains in good hands after leaving the island for Asia.

Stewart - a key figure in the creation of the club in 2007 - who now oversees the careers of promising young sprinters Dexter Lee, Sheldon Mitchell and experienced campaigners Ainsley Waugh, Oral Thompson and Emmanuel Callender, left the island on Saturday to take up a six-month coaching opportunity in South Korea.

"The reality is that I have taken up a temporary six-month opportunity to work in Asia and I'll be back in the country in February next year," Stewart confirmed recently.

"I am heading back into Daegu, South Korea and I will be working with the athletes there trying to develop technique and skill and impart to them some of the Jamaican culture in terms of track and field."

Opportunity

A former masseuse, Stewart, who has worked with established coaches such as Stephen Francis, Glen Mills and Fitz Coleman, will be working with young sprinters in Daegu and will also have the opportunity to bring two of his charges along with him.

Mitchell is expected to make the trip to South Korea along with another member of SWEPT Track Club.

Already struggling to keep the group functional due to a lack of financial support, Stewart noted that it's for this very reason, among others, why the decision was eventually made to take up the opportunity, which came about after his time with the Jamaican team in Daegu, South Korea for the IAAF World Championships last year.

The coach also underlined that he will be hoping to forge serious alliances with his hosts to the benefit of the club.

There has, however, been considerable concern over the affairs of Lee, who is one of the island's most promising sprinters and was a member of Jamaica's 4x100m relay team in Daegu last year, and how his development will be affected by Stewart's absence during the background months for the 2013 season.

Competent assistants

Stewart is certain that the club and its athletes remain in good hands with his assistants, including Adrian Pitter and Dwight Williams, charged with holding the reins until his return.

"The programme will continue until I get back and as with every programme, there has to be some competent assistants. Just like at Racers and MVP, at SWEPT it is nothing different; there are very good coaches there," Stewart said.

"If you are working with assistants that you can't leave for a few months then we would have to close it down, so as I said, I am quite certain that the programme will continue and SWEPT is here to stay," Stewart added, before admitting that he was not always comfortable with leaving.

"Initially, when the opportunity presented itself and I expressed my interest, that was before Ainsley Waugh and Dexter Lee came on board and most of the other established ones like Emmanuel Callender," Stewart told The Gleaner. "At the first instance I was hesitant, but after sitting with people who have been in the field for some time and have been exposed at a higher level than myself and looking at things that could be put in place as it relates to my athletes, at the last minute we decided to take up the opportunity."

Stewart is expecting the opportunity to bear some degree of financial windfall for his club, which has laboured along without any major sponsorship.

"The club is not being financed, we have not been able to attract any major sponsor to take on the expense of the club and currently the expenses are being taken up by my own personal savings or assistance from friends and family and sometimes from the JAAA," said Stewart.

The coach is expected back in the island in February, but has a clause in the contract that allows him to cut the period short if needs be.