After guiding his young charge Oblique Seville to a fourth-place finish in the men’s 100m final at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, coach Glen Mills expressed satisfaction with the result and is confident that the added experience and the sprinter’s overall development will make him a force to be reckoned with at major upcoming championships.

Seville, competing in his first World Championships and second senior international competition after featuring in the semi-finals at the Tokyo Olympic Games, clocked 9.97 seconds to finish behind the American trio of Fred Kerley, 9.86, Marvin Bracy, 9.88, and Trayvon Bromell, 9.88.

Speaking to the Jamaica Observer shortly after the event, Mills warned that it is only a matter of time before the 21-year-old makes his way to the podium, adding that they have already identified the key areas for improvement.

“I’m elated about Oblique’s performances this year and his fourth-place finish at the World Championship is a solid contribution to the development that is going on,” Mills said. “He has not yet even started competing on the circuit in a meaningful way and that will further enhance his competitive skills and ability, so we know we have quite a great ocean of unexplored areas.”

Mills believes that Seville was hampered by a poorly-executed opening phase but showed good speed and determination to fight his way back into medal contention.

“I am yet to assess the race in the way I usually do but at first glance, it wasn’t the greatest of starts, the first 30 metres could have been significantly better. The lane in a 100m doesn’t really matter but I don’t think being drawn beside the defending champion, who is a very quick starter, (Christian) Coleman would have helped his situation because although Coleman didn’t feature at the end, he certainly was out in a blaze and that probably could have thrown off Seville’s execution. That’s part of the experience in competing with people at those levels that he will get over the next period,” Mills added. “So the next time, when put in that situation, he’ll know how to react and execute under those conditions.”

“He made a tremendous surge in the middle and at one stage heading towards the finish, he was in a medal position but Bromell on the outside was able to gather himself and surge past him and place him into fourth. The time wasn’t great. I know he’s capable of running faster but one of the things is, that he is yet to reach the stage where he can run that semi-final and come back an hour and a half later to run even faster. This is another thing that we will be working on and we are working on and I am certain that the next time around, we will be ready to deal with it based on what we’re doing. So we’re taking it one step at a time. Luckily for us, the next World Championship is next year and then followed by the Olympics,” said Mills.

Seville has made significant improvements this season, dropping his personal best to 9.86 seconds, making him the sixth-fastest Jamaican in history.