‘It is all about speed’ - Francis expects top performance from Thompson at the Paris Games

PARIS, France:

His prediction may not be prophetic, but MVP Track Club's head coach, Stephen Francis, is nonetheless confident in the abilities of national 100 metres champion Kishane Thompson as he prepares for the biggest moment in his young career so far.

Francis, who has seen Thompson's transformation for the past two years, says that with him maintaining his national championship shape, he has every chance of leaving a mark on the Olympic Games.

"I am in no position to predict what anybody else is going to do. It appears to me that he (Thompson) is at least as good as he was at the national championships in June, so we will see," Francis says.

Thompson has only raced once since the national championships, a 9.91 seconds win earlier this month in Hungary. At the JAAA/Puma National Junior and Senior Championships, however, he clocked round-by-round times of 9.82, 9.84 and 9.77 seconds.

Francis was speaking after training concluded yesterday at the Complexe sportif de l'Ile-des-Vannes, where Thompson, as well as world 200m champion Shericka Jackson and a number of his athletes, trained in preparation for the start of the track and field programme of the Games. Thompson is under the spotlight as he makes his major global championship debut as the world leader in the 100m.

While Thompson is a major championship debutant, Francis was quick to point out that experience counts for very little when you are competing in the 100m.

"It is all about speed. When the gun fires, you run from there to here. Whoever gets there first wins. So it has nothing to do with the experience or mental pressure or whatever," Francis said.

Thompson, along with national teammates Oblique Seville and Ackeem Blake, will be seeking Jamaica's first major global men's 100m podium in eight years when the men's 100m first round begins on Saturday at 3:35 a.m. (Jamaica time).