The students at the Orealia Kelly Primary School (formerly the Stoney Ground Primary School) had a surprise visit from two past students, Shara Proctor and Zharnel Hughes who are both long jump and sprinter athletes respectively for Great Britain.
The two Anguillian athletes are just fresh from the Commonwealth Games in Australia. Shara won a Bronze Medal and Zharnel almost won a Gold Medal in the 200 meters but was disqualified when he accidentally came into contact with another frontrunner. He, however, won a Gold Medal in the 4×100 meter relay.
“Australia was nice. It was a good experience,” Shara told The Anguillian. “It was definitely a success for me although I wanted the Gold Medal but I was lucky enough to come home with a Bronze Medal. Being home is very relaxing because I have the rest of the season to go. I needed to come home, relax and recover and get my mind right to continue so that I could face the rest of the season with success.”
Joniff Gumbs
Zharnel told the excited students: “For me, the experience in Australia was also good. Unfortunately, I got disqualified in the 200 meters. I was en route to win the Gold Medal. I cross the line winning the race but, unfortunately, I had an incident with another athlete. My arm went out and I got disqualified.
“Nevertheless, as an athlete you tend to have things up and down but you have to learn how to bounce back from them. I was able to regain myself the next day to compete in the 4x100m relay. I remember doing so with zero sleep because I had just competed the night before and my body was really, really exhausted. My legs were really tired because I was competing at high intensity for five days straight, but I told myself this 4x100m is not just for me personally.
“Team England is looking out for us athletes and I want to regain myself. I want to show the world that we are capable of great things. So I told myself that despite the disappointment, I worked hard and I was not going to allow my hard work to disappear. I said to my team: ‘guys as long as you can get me the baton I will do what I am supposed to do.’ I got the baton, ran and we got Gold. Currently I am ranked number one in the world in the 100 meters (applause) and for the 200 meters I think I am ranked number four in the world.
“So far this season has been going very well for me, especially coming back from injuries and disappointments. I said 2017 was a redemption year for me, and I came back saying I am going to be much faster and stronger. I am going to work harder and come out predominantly. So far, things are going very well and I will make sure they stay like that.”
Zharnel and Shara encouraged the students to aim for excellence both in sporting activities and academics. They were given the privilege to distribute medals to the school’s athletes which they won in the recent Primary Schools’ Athletic Competition.
Zharnel was delighted to present his own jersey to Joniff Gumbs who broke his (Zharnel’s) record held by the Stoney Ground/Orealia Primary School years ago.
Shara and Zharnel were expected to leave Anguilla on Wednesday this week, for Holland and Jamaica respectively, to resume their training.
