TOKYO, Japan — For legendary coach Glen Mills, there was never a doubt that Oblique Seville’s day would come. For years Seville had been sprinting in a shadow of questions, each championship and season offering unfulfilled promises as medals stayed just out of reach.

With every near miss, the claims of mental frailty grew, but Mills, the veteran sprint coach, knew the podium was getting closer, and as Seville stormed to the 100m gold at the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo, he did so while being far from healthy. This time, despite a persistent toe injury and other undisclosed issues conspiring against him, Seville delivered his first major individual medal.

Mills further made it clear that Seville’s blistering 9.77 seconds effort in Tokyo, a run that made him the fifth-fastest Jamaican of all time, is just a glimpse of things to come.

“I am very happy for Oblique. He has been attending championships and doing fairly well in my book but, as you know, you are judged by whether you have medals or not, and he has had some bad breaks at crucial points in his preparation and it has affected him in more than one instance,” Mills told the Jamaica Observer. “I am happy that he was able to accomplish the mission this time — and it will certainly put to rest all this speculation and nonsense about him.

“Most people believe that because he doesn’t get a medal then something is wrong with his head, and all that nonsense, so my greatest challenge was to keep him focused and not to pay attention to what was being said, because if you keep hearing and reading about it over and over, after a while it is going to have an impact on you — but he’s a very fierce competitor and a solid guy,” Mills added.

Remarkably, Mills revealed that Seville’s fast times and performances were delivered despite a serious toe issue that has forced the sprinter to, at times, train in pain. It has also significantly affected his preparation and ability to perform at his best, so much so that he will require immediate surgery when he returns to Jamaica — a procedure that Mills believes will help him to train at his best and deliver much better times and performances.

“Although he won the world championships, he is less than 100 per cent. He still has two major problems that affect him, and when he comes back he is going to do an operation on his toe. And we hope that this will be successful so that he can now be able to train without pain and run the turn effectively, because if he could his 200m would be just as good as his 100m — and that is something we want to explore,” Mills shared, adding that the surgery will extend Seville’s career and ensure better performances.

“He will have a very good career for a couple of years well, and certainly we will be able to see the best of him,” Mills said. “I am certain he will be able to do much better times than he has been doing.”

The Tokyo victory was sweet validation for Seville but it was also deeply satisfying for Mills. At this stage in his storied career, having coached icons like Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake, and Warren Weir, Mills measures success less in his own achievements and more in the joy of seeing his athletes realise theirs.

“I want to help as many of them as possible to realise their dream, and that is strong enough motivation for me to see Seville on the presentation [podium] with the national anthem being played in his honour and knowing what it means to him and the nation at large. That is satisfaction,” he said.

Mills is also expecting the young sprinter’s success to have a life-changing impact on his life from a personal and professional perspective.

“On a personal level it should help to increase his maturity and growth as a person in a significant way. Being the champion, he will have to take on a new mantra of how he conducts himself and applies himself to his trade and the demands of the public commitments and stuff that the sponsors are going to want him to carry out. So, it’s a new life experience that he will have to get used to — and he will have to carry the mantle well,” Mills stated.

“There are more events, more races to come. Hopefully he will be able to take a more active part in international competitions outside of championships. It’s a new territory for him, both professionally and socially.”

Aware of the impact of the gold medal — Jamaica’s first in the event since Bolt’s 2016 Olympic podium-topping performance — Mills reminded fans not to take the success for granted.

“It’s not easy to win this 100m, especially the males — not that the women’s event is easy, but the male is so tough and competitive and so on. Jamaica has been fortunate to win so many in what I consider two or three decades. It’s only the United States, whose population and size is enormously bigger, has come anywhere close to what we have achieved, and I think we take a lot of it for granted as if it is easy to come one-two in the world. That is no easy feat. I don’t know of another country, except for the USA, which has had that kind of achievement,” Mills said in reference to the result in the 100m final in Tokyo which saw fellow Jamaican Kishane Thompson taking the silver medal in 9.82 seconds. American Noah Lyles was third in 9.89.

Seville’s confirmation signalled Jamaica’s return to the top of international sprinting. This one win has changed the narrative around his career — at least for the masses. But for Mills, Seville was always a champion.