Dexter Lee to join SWEPT Track Club

BY PAUL A REID Observer Writer

Tuesday, November 01, 2011

IAAF World Championships relay gold medallist Dexter Lee has parted ways with his long-time coach Claude Grant and will join the Okele Stewart-coached SWEPT Track Club in Kingston.

Lee, who has a personal best of 10.06 seconds in the 100m, confirmed the move with the Observer late yesterday, but would not go into any details.

Grant has coached Lee since 2003 when he started Herbert Morrison Technical and followed his older brother Keneil to training.

At SWEPT, Lee, who anchored the men's 4x100m team in the qualifying heats in Deagu, South Korea in early September, will rejoin Keneil, who recently left the UTech/MVP setup after a number of years.

Claude Bryan, Lee's agent for the last two years, would only say the "move was amicable" and said nothing should be read into it.

Efforts to contact Grant were futile as his cell phones rang without answer.

Grant, who is still the coach of World and Olympic champion Veronica Campbell Brown, guided Lee to a handful of titles, including an IAAF World Youth 100m in 2007, two IAAF World Junior 100m gold medals in 2008 and 2010, as well as several CARIFTA and CAC junior individual gold medals.

Lee, who just completed his first season as a senior, and who was discovered at Herbert Morrison Technical by Grant, is also one of the few male sprinters to win the 100m in all three classes at the ISSA Boys Champs.