Your time will come

MORE than 30 young athletes got the opportunity to conduct track and field drills with local star Jereem Richards, when Republic Bank held a meet and greet session at the bank’s sports club in Barataria, yesterday.

Richards is preparing for the NGC/National Association of Athletics Administrations Open Championships, at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo, from Friday-Sunday.

Before the drills the athletes got to ask Richards questions about his career, life and goals.

Richards, who was part of the men’s 4x400m team that won gold at the IAAF World Relays in Yokohama, Japan, earlier this year, encouraged the athletes to not get demotivated if success does not arrive immediately.

“The biggest word of advice I will have in achieving your goals is to always keep it in mind and stay focussed (and) don’t lose track of it because sometimes disappointments would come. A lot of athletes don’t know how to deal with not running the time you want to run at certain times, but you have to be patient...your time will come, everyone has a time to shine,” Richards said.

The 2018 200m Commonwealth Games gold medallist urged the athletes to concentrate on their academics.

“After track and field (and) after sports there is life. You need to have certain credentials to get a job and if you want to make a certain amount of money or you want to be stable where you could see about you and your family you need to have an education, so it is really important as everyone is saying.”

Michelle Palmer-Keizer, general manager, group marketing and communications, wants the upcoming athletes to learn from Richards. “Take away that you can dream and you can achieve, but it is not just to dream and leave it in the open air but to work towards your goals. Jereem works hard, he focusses on his objectives and he does not give it up and that is what I would like our young athletes to take away.”