Hosea Glenn and Terrence Fraser have their work cut out for them at the upcoming South American Youth Championship as they seek to make their mark in the 400 metres hurdles, representing Guyana on home turf.
Hosea Glenn and Terrence Fraser will strive to medal in the 400m hurdles despite their inexperience
Events such as hurdles, the steeplechase and pole vault are literally foreign to local athletes; the last time Guyana participated in any hurdles event at an international meet was decades ago, thus this is a new challenge being presented not only to the athletes but the coaches as well.
Speaking to Guyana Times Sport, in an exclusive interview, veteran coach Moses Pantlitz, who is responsible for the training of Glenn and Fraser, noted that while it has been quite a while since Guyanese athletes have competed in hurdles events, preparation was moving along quite nicely.
The duo who started training from “scratch” for the event five weeks ago have already grasped the skill of hurdling adeptly. Coach Pantlitz, however, highlighted that they now needed to work on bettering their times in the event.
The world record in the 400m hurdles stands at 46.78s, and Fraser has so far clocked 58s in his time trial, with Glenn coming in at just under 60s. According to Coach Pantlitz, they will be working on their technique as well as bringing their times closer to the 50s mark as that was the average time in the event at the last CARIFTA Games.
The Coach added that he was “reasonably confident” that the athletes could bring down their times and do their best in the event.
Glenn, who has been coached by Pantlitz for some time, was singled out for the event, while Fraser was selected by another coach to participate. Both athletes’ traditional events are the 800m and 1500m.
Fraser, who is a lanky athlete, said that while the training was a bit “stiff” at the beginning, things were now falling into place. He stressed that he was striving to better his time and do Guyana proud come the weekend of the Championship.
Glenn, who clocked the slower time of the two, highlighted that he had the ability to go faster. He also explained that he was comfortable and caught on quickly while showing progression.
Guyana will be competing at the championship against 12 other countries at an elevated level of athleticism, while striving to participate in every event.
However, it was disclosed that there was not be an athlete representing Guyana in the pole vault, but there would be representatives in the steeplechase.
The Championship will run from June 3-4 at the Leonora Synthetic Track, West Coast Demerara.
