Webster Chung had just won the first ever 2,000m steeplechase event at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ Champs last Friday night and despite setting a new event and National Junior Record (NJR) in the event that was introduced to the local high school calendar this year, his first order of business was sharing his success with his mother.

The only problem was Merlene Chung has been dead for three years. She passed away around the same time Webster was getting ready to take part in Champs 2008.

The 19-year-old St Jago High student found a quiet place where he pulled out a battered and much handled photo of his mother and stared at it for a few minutes before he politely allowed a prying journalist into his space.

What was he doing with the photo?

“I always have this photo of my mother,” he said. “She is my motivation and keeps me focused all the time.”

Then he tells how she died of cancer in 2008 as he was preparing for Champs, but how the memory of her telling him to go after anything he put his mind to keeps him going.

When asked whether he realised that the 6 minutes 13.20 seconds he just ran was a new NJR, a small smile crossed his face and he conceded that: “It makes me feel good.”

At the start of the season when St Jago’s coach Danny Hawthorne told the team about the event, he said he was one of the few who volunteered to try it.

The first race was at the GC Foster Classic in February, then at the UWI Classic in March where he ran 6 minutes 18.24 seconds before wining the first Champs gold medal, finishing ahead of teammate Sanje Pantry (6 minutes 16.45 seconds) with Jamaica College’s Bejaun Jones taking the bronze in 6 minutes 20.83 seconds.

Chung’s job was not even close to being finished yet as after placing fifth in the final of the Class One 1,500m earlier, he was second in the 5,000m Open final on Saturday’s final day of competition.

He had prepared well, he said, and knew he was able to do whatever it took to give it his best shot as after all that was the way his mother had raised him.