National junior 400m champion athlete Stephan James will not be participating in the football segment of this year’s Inter Guiana Games (IGG) his coach Sham Johnny has declared.
The versatile James has been included among the footballers who have been called to trials with a view towards making the IGG football team.
James recently returned from the just concluded Pan American (Juniors) Games in Miami, Florida, United States of America where he became the first junior athlete to reach a sprint final.
James had participated in the recent Digicel Schools’ football championships where he made a favourable impression on the selectors and was subsequently called to trials.
But in an interview with Johnny, he told Stabroek Sport that James’ participation in the football tournament can affect his future as an athlete.
Johnny said that though James will not be participating in the IGG football trials he will be taking part in the track and field trials.
“It’s no football for him period, he will participate in the track aspect but no football,” Johnny maintained.
Johnny also addressed the issue of James below par performance in the 400m final at the Pan Am juniors after he had clocked 47.27s in the heats.
“Well, there were many problems as James explained to me. The stadium was 45 minutes away from the Games Village and after he finished his heat it was close to the final so he basically did not have anything to eat since the morning and was surviving on Gatorade and water alone coupled with the cal muscle cramps he had when he warmed down after the heats……”
“So there were a lot of factors that came into play that hampered his 400m final run. When it came to the 200m, we had not been doing any 200m work with Stephan. It was mainly the 400m we were focusing on.. so the 200m time will definitely improve. He is confident and that’s the good thing at the moment,” Johnny concluded.
