New track club takes aim at Budapest 100m

As a science buff and student athlete at Kingston College, Dr Carl Bartley always tried to apply what he learnt to sprinting. This journey led him to form the Motorcade Track Club late last year, after he helped newcomer Jeevan Newby to a silver medal in the 100 metres at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships. For 2023, Bartley’s aim is to guide Newby to the national team in the 100m for the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

Asked last Friday why he formed the club, he replied: “I have developed a new philosophy in coaching sprinters, and I’ve been having this idea ever since I was at high school. I was a science student and I always tried to apply, find ways to apply science to my sprinting. And it wasn’t until I stumbled onto a subject called physiology that I decided, yes, this is it. And I’ve studied the functions of the human body and how the nervous system controls the body, and it has given me the tools to make very fast people.”

With Bartley as his coach, Newby burst on to the scene with a series of personal bests (PBs). Among them were his times of 10.41 seconds at the Carifta Trials, representing Kingston College, and 10.22 at the Velocity Fest on April 23. To prove that was no fluke, he also clocked 10.25 and 10.30 at subsequent meets, before succumbing to an injury at the National Junior Championships.

“When I got him, he was doing 11.63. I got him to 10.2 in just five months and that proved to me that my philosophy works,” Bartley affirmed.

The qualifying time for Budapest is 10.00 seconds and that’s what Bartley and the 19-year-old Newby are aiming for.

“For Jeevan Newby, our first goal now is to qualify for the World Championship, so we’re trying to get him to 10 flat by the time the Jamaica Championships comes around,”Bartley said.

Thirty-one men ran 10.00 or faster in 2022. Jamaica’s Yohan Blake, World Championship 100m finalist Oblique Seville, Ackeem Blake and US-born Davonte Burnett all broke the old barrier, with Conroy Jones and Jelani Walker matching it precisely at 10 flat.

Newby’s stablemate, Adrian Kerr of Kingston College, clocked a personal best of 10.43 seconds last Friday at the ONDIRUN Sprint Fest on the grounds of the G.C. Foster College in Spanish Town. It’s a result that has further encouraged Bartley. Asked for an insight on how Newby is doing in practice, he said: “He’s getting there. We have five months to go, so I think he’s doing pretty fine. We have Adrian Kerr, and as you see, he has run his first meet and he has done his PB. I think we’re going to have a good year.”

Bartley knows there are no guarantees; however, the Motorcade Track Club founder and coach is quietly optimistic.

“I’m looking forward to seeing both Kerr and Newby get 10-flat clockings to qualify themselves for the World Championships,” he said, “and that’s my plan.”