CELEBRATED Jamaican track and field coach Stephen Francis is calling for patience and has warned against heightened expectations around gifted talent such as the Clayton twins — Tina and Tia — after reports surfaced that the teenagers have decided to join the professional ranks at his University of Technology, Jamaica-based MVP Track Club.

Francis, who has conditioned top female sprinters such as Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Elaine Thompson-Herah to legendary status, will reportedly add the Edwin Allen High School pair to his ranks in September when the new training cycle commences.

The coach was coy when asked to confirm the development, first reported by the Jamaica Observer, and took the opportunity to encourage fans to temper their projections for the world-beating 17-year-olds.

“Usually when I turn up for practice in September, whoever is there, is there … but I wouldn’t be surprised to see anybody except people I know are already training with other people elsewhere,” said a poker-faced Francis.

“I have coached women who run 14 flat and I coach women who run 10.54 so I mean, it doesn’t matter. As long as one is willing to work and willing to listen and try, I’m good.”

Understandable caution, considering the realities of recent seasons when big-named athletes did not show up as expected for MVP’s pre-season background preparations, changing camps during the build-up to the campaign instead.

Francis was, however, eager to offer advice to supporters of developing track and field talent like the Claytons.

“What I will say is that people should be very careful in piling expectations on kids, children, young ladies, or young men who display extraordinary ability at relatively young ages,” advised Francis.

“The vast majority of those people who pass a certain level as teenagers never get any better — there’s a long history of this. I mean, somebody that runs 10.9 at age 17 or 18, people tend to think that their ceiling would automatically be 10.2 and so the expectation is what kills a lot of people — and people should understand that there’s no linear, or even arithmetic or progressive, correlation between age and performance,” Francis added.

Tina Clayton, the World Under-20 champion in the 100m, is considered to be one of the most exciting young sprinters on the planet, lowering her personal best to 10.96 seconds while competing at the National Junior Championships.

The mark is the new national junior record in the event and the sixth fastest in history by an Under-20 athlete.

Tia Clayton, who like her sister was a member of Jamaica’s world record-breaking 4x100m relay team, has a personal best of 11.25 seconds.

“I don’t think that we should weigh down these kids. Let them go compete, and stop commenting every minute about why they have not progressed and so on. Our history has shown, and most people when you get down to being world-class at those ages, they are pretty much near their ceiling,” Francis pointed out.

The coach also touched on the debate around whether or not it is better for top local talent to remain in Jamaica as opposed to taking the US collegiate route.

“The vast majority of people who have stayed here have also been failures. I would agree that there are some advantages to staying here, depending on where you go and depending on the conditions under which you stay here. There are also advantages to taking the NCAA route. The NCAA route is far less risky … as well as it being easier to study and get yourself an education. I mean [Usain] Bolt did very very well being here, and [Yohan] Blake to a lesser extent, but you can’t make decisions based on only the successes. There is a whole string of failures that sometimes people conveniently ignore, and there are a whole lot of people who claim that they can make them good, and fail.

“It’s a very, very tough decision for a youngster and I can’t blame those who decide to go with the less-risky proposition, but for those two young ladies [Clayton twins] I hope that wherever they go they will at least continue to satisfy themselves and to see how good they can get,” said Francis.