It didn’t come as a surprise when American 400m World champion Phyllis Francis revealed that her father Andrew Francis hails from Montego Bay in St James.

Francis arrived in the island on Wednesday night for the fourth staging of the Racers Adidas Grand Prix and it will be her first time at the event and she is looking forward to her stay in Jamaica.

“I love the food here, salt fish and ackee,” revealed Francis. “My father is a Jamaican from somewhere in the country, Montego Bay.”

“She eats ackee and salt fish every time before she runs,” chipped in Disa Nicholson, her close friend and mentor from Trinidad and Tobago. “I have to make sure I cook it every time. She eats, sleeps, and run.”

Francis, who visited Jamaica a couple of times as a youngster, will be racing in Jamaica for the first time. She stunned the world in 2017 by defeating her idol and one of the greatest female athletes of all time — Allyson Felix and Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo in the 400m and announced herself to the world.

“I just want to go out there and run well; that’s my expectations and to improve on my opener and take it from there,” she said.

With a personal best of 49.92 seconds and a seasonal best of 50.86 seconds, Francis is looking forward to another clash with Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo of The Bahamas.

“I am actually excited about it. I like to welcome competition, so I think it’s a real good opportunity for us to like push each other through a really good time to a PR (personal record) or a season’s best,” she added.

“I just think it will be good to run against this sort of field and I think it will be very good competition for me,” She noted.

Francis will line up against Miller-Uibo, Canadian Aiyanna-Brigette Stiverne, Bajan Sada Williams and a host of Jamaicans in Chrisann Gordon, Christine Day, Anastasia LeRoy and Junelle Broomfield.

—Howard Walker