No boundaries for Demish Gaye

“Once he’s fit, I put no boundaries on him.”

That declaration from SprinTec Track Club founder Maurice Wilson describes the potential of Demish Gaye, the 2017 and 2019 World Championships 400 metres finalist, and it comes at a time the smooth-running 30-year-old is approaching good form.

“In 2020, he was in the best shape of his life. That was coming out of 2019, Doha,” Wilson recounted Gaye’s fourth-place 44.46 seconds run at the Doha World Championships.

“Unfortunately, there was this injury, there was this problem with his foot, and it took many months for us to find out exactly what was the problem, and from then, he started to have a hip flexor the following year, and so, in terms of training, hours training, days training, months, it really set us back.”

Gaye’s times are dropping in 2023, from a season opening 46.13 in Coral Gables, Miami, to a recent 45.32 in 4th at the Racers Grand Prix.

“This year has been much better but again as you start to tweak the workouts, you find that there are areas here and there that give an issue, but I can say safely, in no uncertain manner, that Demish is built for 400m running. He’s one of the smoothest athletes you can find when he’s at his best. Almost poetry in motion,” the coach offered.

Wilson’s mission is to keep Gaye fit.

“It is very hard for persons who are not in sport to understand how you’re supposed to be able to balance on a sharp knife without getting cut,” he submitted.

Wilson is unstinting in his praise for the perseverance shown by the 2019 Pan American Games runner-up.

“From a motivational standpoint, I think he’s one of the most professional athletes I’ve ever coached. I think when it comes to professionalism, he’s above par in terms of his dress, his speech, his mannerism, his attitude towards training,” he continued with reference to the man who gave his best to 4x400m teams at the 2021 Olympics and last year’s World Championships.

ATHLETIC SHAPE

“So it is my responsibility, not his, to make sure that at some point in his career he is able to get his best in terms of physical shape and in terms of athletic shape. I have to find a way to make it possible as long as I’m still coaching him,” Wilson said, echoing the commitment all coaches have.

Gaye will have to reach the World Championships qualifying standard of 45.00 flat and place in the top three at next week’s National Championship to secure an individual 400m slot in Budapest, Hungary, the host city of the 2023 World Championships. As things stand, he is the ninth fastest Jamaican 400m runner of the season, with Sean Bailey, Antonio Watson and Gaye’s training partner Zandrion Barnes the only ones to break 45 seconds this year.