By Kiev Chesney
Defending champion and three-time winner of the Caricom 10k road race Alika Morgan will look to make it four-in-a-row when she competes at the event in Antigua today.
According to coach Leslie Black, Morgan earned her first victory in the inaugural event after winner Samia Akbar was disqualified and then returned to undisputedly win the next two races.
Earlier this week Morgan told Stabroek Sport that she was very confident about capturing her fourth title in this event and that she felt that the training that she had been doing recently would be an asset to a dominant performance this year.
Black said that although he had to adjust to Morgan’s preparation for the event because she was sitting the Caribbean Secondary Exam-inations Council (CSEC) exams, he thinks that he is in good shape.
“Her training was somewhat affected because she had to write CXC but what we tried to do is work on some of the important areas that she needed help with before this race[Caricom10km] and I think we covered most of the areas,” Black said.
He added:” We tried to push in some endurance work in her training because I realized that she was lacking endurance coming down to the bottom of her races based on her performance at the Hampton Games in Trinidad last month.”
Black also revealed that Morgan had done some speed work recently to prepare for the event and said that she looked to be in good form during her club’s victory in last Sunday’s Olympic Day Team Run.
Kelvin Johnson, another one of the top long distance runners to have benefited from Black’s coaching expertise will also compete in the event.
According to his coach, Johnson will be looking to improve on his third place finish in last year’s event as well as to better his 10k personal best.
Black said that based on what he has seen from Johnson in training and at last Sunday’s race (team run), he is expected to give a good account of himself.
