Fast, young, 100 metre hurdlers, Brittany Anderson and Ackera Nugent are reaping the benefits of patient development. So says David Riley, head of the Excelsior High School Track and Field programme that guided Nugent to a World Under 18 record.

Anderson set two World Under 20 records last year and has a victory over 2019 World Championship bronze medalist Danielle Williams while Nugent, who is eligible for the 2021 World Under 20 Championships, has backed up her upset NCAA Indoor 60 metre hurdles victory with a bronze from the NCAA Outdoor Championships two weeks ago.

Speaking just before this week’s National Championships, Riley reasoned, “good thing for those ladies is that they were taught to hurdle, no shortcuts, so it’s easy to make the transition as the hurdle gets higher and that’s a very important part, the foundation for hurdling is really getting them the correct technique from early, not necessarily looking for the immediate results because the results will come when the hurdles are high enough for them and I think that allows for them to be actually demonstrating the kind of times that we’re now seeing.

During her time at Excelsior, Nugent set the Under 18 world mark at 12.89 seconds while Anderson was the 2017 World Under 18 Champion and runner-up in the 2018 World Under 20 Championships in her time at Vere Technical High School. Last year, she lowered the World Under 20 record first to 12.79 and 12.71 seconds.

David Riley“We have a lot of depth”, he noted with reference to sub-13 clockings by Dazsay Freeman, Trishauna Hemmings and Rosalee Cooper on the US College circuit this season. “We don’t have a lot of hurdlers around and to think we are making the kind of waves that we are with extremely short resources, it helps to ask the question – what if we had more exposure? Where are the other Nugents and Andersons? How many other schools have these athletes? We just need to unearth their talents because both of them aren’t coming from big programmes. They’re coming from being developed patiently and that is also an indication of what is required for some of the technical events”, analysed Riley.

The Excelsior head coach concluded, “It’s not about numbers, it’s about quality and having a coach who can spend the time to develop the skills at a basic level and then gradually take them to advanced level. I think that is so important.”