Claude Grant, coach of Herbert Morrison Technical, is taking nothing for granted and neither is he leaving anything to chance when the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Champs gets underway next Tuesday morning at National Stadium.

Based on performances so far, Herbert Morrison is expected to be in the thick of things over the first two days, particularly in the boys sprints, but Grant — who has made a name for producing quality sprinters over the years — says he is not putting any undue pressures on the athletes.

“All reasonable coaches know that they can’t perform the tasks (for the athletes)…the athletes now has to put on the show of their own hard work and it will be seen by two things knowledge of performance and knowledge of results,” Granted told the Jamaica Observer.

Class One sprinter DeAndre Daley had once again attracted a lot of attention leading into Champs and has run fast in the last month or so, winning the Carifta Games Trials 100m and running a personal best 10.30 seconds.

In the past he has run fast early but have been felled by injuries, but Grant says he hopes that is behind him now.

“His maturity and patience were much better this season, we had set goals, knowing his physical challenges,” the coach said, “The reality too is that each race is a means to an end. We have learned too that nothing is promise to no one but work hard has good rewards,” said the coach.

Despite some setbacks and uncertainties at the start, Grant, who also guided Dexter Lee — one of few men to have won the 100m in all three classes at Champs— said they had made the best of the circumstances.

“There were challenges as COVID-19 brought in a lot of uncertainties and our field is still under renovation. However, this [is] one of my best group of students athletes we have had in a while, they wanted to do well; so it was not so hard to keep them motivated.”

While there are a lot of attention on Daley, Grant says his focus must be on the team and not the individuals.

“It’s a group of hard-working students athletes, once they come out with the Herbert on their chest, they are there to do their personal best, so I am not highlighting any one athletes but the group,” he noted.

The former County of Cornwall Athletics Association (COCAA) double champions enjoyed their best outing in years at this year’s Western Champs when the boys placed third overall with 195 points and the girls seventh with 75 points.