Elaine Thompson-Herah will not train with athletes from the Elite Performance Track Club in Kingston, but instead will train separately under the guidance of the club’s coach Reynaldo Walcott.
Informed sources have indicated that the athlete will have separate training schedules, with Walcott set to “go to” Thompson-Herah in a private setting each day after completing his Elite Performance duties at Jamaica College’s Ashenheim Stadium. Walcott reportedly shared the news with athletes in the group on Thursday morning.
Prior to the recent developments, Thompson-Herah, who owns her own gym equipment, was training at the National Stadium at Independence Park in Kingston.
Andi Sports Management, the agent representing Thompson-Herah, who won a historic 100/200m double at both the 2016 Rio Olympics and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, announced Monday that April 31 -year-old athlete will now receive lessons from Walcott.
“From difficulties come miracles. Happy Monday,” the sprinter posted on Instagram, as if he wanted to celebrate the development.
The move represents a quick turnaround following her highly publicized split from coach Shanikie Osbourne after both parties failed to agree on compensation terms for a long-term deal.
Osbourne took over coaching duties for the five-time Olympic champion after the Jamaica National Athletics Championships in July and led the injury-plagued sprinter to her best times in the now completed 2023 athletics season.
After Thompson-Herah finished fifth in the championship’s 100m final with a relatively laborious 11.06 seconds, Osbourne got her fast again with times of 11.00, 10.92, 10.84 and 10.79 in successive races to run and ended her season on a high note.
Following her split from Osbourne, Thompson-Herah’s husband Derron revealed in an interview on Sportsmax late last week that a new coaching appointment was not far off. The surprise announcement came on Monday morning.
News of the coach’s choice came as a surprise given the contentious relationship between Thompson-Herah and five-time 100m world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who has been coached by Walcott since early 2020. The relationship between the former good friends became increasingly strained while both were members of the MVP Track Club and Fraser-Pryce eventually left the club to join what later became Elite Performance.
