FORMER national junior sprinter Tia Clayton has described the first race of her professional career as very difficult but said she is adapting well to the rigours of training at the MVP track club.

Clayton, who made the switch from Edwin Allen High School to the Stephen Francis-led MVP Track and Field Club at the end of last season, opened her campaign at the JAAA/Puma Fuller Anderson meet at the Kirkwine Sports Club in Manchester on Saturday after jogging 1:14.78 to finish 14 overall in the girls’ Class One 400m.

Tia, the twin sister of reigning World Under-20 100m champion Tina, who is also coached by Francis at the MVP track club, told the Jamaica Observer that she is quite pleased with her performance during the race but admitted she still has a lot of things to work on, going forward.

“I am feeling very great to be out here again and injury-free and finishing this race healthy,” said Tia.

“I knew that it wasn’t going to be an easy race and so I wanted to just finish the race because I knew what was going to be the outcome,” she said.

Tia, who has a personal best time of 11.25 in the 100m and 23.41 in the 200m, was a member of Jamaica’s 4×100m relay team that won the gold medal in that event at the World Under-20 Championships in Cali, Colombia, with a world record 42.56 seconds.

She shared that her build-up to this season has been very challenging but said she is doing the best she can to maintain her focus and discipline throughout.

“Training is going fine and everything is going good so far. It is not as easy as it seems because it is very hard, but I am pulling through,” said Tia.

“It is not as easy as high school training because we could have pulled through easily, but here we can’t pull through that easily. My aspiration is to run a personal best and to finish the season injury-free,” she added.

Tia and Tina helped Edwin Allen claim their eighth-straight ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships title last year, topping the points standing with 352 points ahead of Hydel and St Jago High who finished second and third, respectively.

Meanwhile, Manchester High’s Javon Blair was among the standout performers at the meet after he won the boys’ Class One 200m timed final in a swift 22.66. Davion Whyte from Holmwood was second overall in 22.67 while Roshane Forbes from Athletico Union was third in 23.28.

Annalice Brady of Holmwood topped the girls’ Class One section with a time of 25.00, Askeika Smith from Manchester finished second in 25.78, with third going to Monique Proudlove in 25.81.

Jaheim Diosi from G C Foster College was the overall winner of the men’s 200m invitational event after capturing heat one in 22.97. In fact Diosi was the only man to break the 22-second barrier in the event, with his teammates Earl Simmons (23.00) and Javon Rawlins (23.20) finishing second and third, respectively.

Annicea Richards from G C Foster won the women’s equivalent in 25.89 ahead of the MVP pair of Akrista Eristee (26.41) and Jodian Stewart (28.20).

Osmond Holt from Muschett captured the boys’ Class One 800m event in 2:06.61 minutes in front of Omar Matthews from Central (2:06.62) and Jordon Sinclair from Bellfield (2:07.72).

— Robert Bailey