Hyman has lot more to give

Ronald Shillingford

Kemar Hyman has achieved another fantastic milestone for the Cayman Islands by reaching the 100 metres semi-finals at the London Olympics.

The 22-year-old sprinter ran 10.16 seconds to come fourth in a heat won by Ryan Bailey of the USA in 9.88 seconds on Saturday. Only the first three automatically qualified and Hyman qualified as one of the fastest other finishers for the semis on Sunday.

Hyman said: “It didn’t go too badly but I didn’t execute as well as I wanted to. I’m going to change a few things and take it from there.

“I need to stay more upward in the middle part of my race and be more aggressive at the start.”

Hyman beat his own Cayman Islands record with a blistering run of 9.95 seconds only a few weeks ago. He will need to be in that kind of form to reach the final which is also on Sunday.

“I was never worried about qualifying for the semis and was trying to conserve my energy,” he said. “I actually thought I would be in the top three and was surprised to come fourth.”

Coach Kenrick Williams is pleased that the youngster he first started coaching in primary school has developed into a world class athlete.

“I am excited that Kemar has run his race and qualified for the semis,” Williams said. “He is on top of his game. At the end of his race we spoke and he said he will try his best to make it to the final.

“If everything goes through then he will definitely be in the final. He has the talent to run faster than the 10.16 he posted. His time of 9.95 suggests that he can make it to the finals.

“He was only trying to qualify and get the kinks out of his body. He executed a good race even though not everything worked for the best for him. However, he’s spoken with his personal coach and I had a talk with him and we see him executing the perfect race next time.”

With the likes of Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake, Justin Gatlin, Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell probably featuring for medals, who does coach Kenrick see picking up gold? “Kemar Hyman, of course!”

The 100m semi-finals and finals are on Sunday. The semis are from 1.45pm Cayman time and the final is at 2.50pm Cayman time.

There were no surprises in the other heats. Defending Olympic champ Usain Bolt of Jamaica cruised home in 10.09 seconds to win his heat, as did other heat winners America’s Tyson Gay (10.08) and Justin Gatlin (9.97)  and Jamaica’s Asafa Powell (10.04 and Yohan Blake (10.00). Britain’s Dwain Chambers won the final heat in 10.02 seconds.