COMMONWEALTH Games finalist and national record holder Navasky Anderson ran the fastest-ever indoor 800m time by a Jamaican after he won the event in 1:46.58 minutes at last Saturday’s Music City Challenge hosted by Vanderbilt University, at the Vanderbilt multipurpose facility in Nashville, Tennessee.

Anderson, who broke Jamaica’s long-standing outdoors 800m record last year when he ran 1:45.02 seconds at the NCAA Championships at Hayward Field, Eugene, Oregon, is ranked first in the competitive south-eastern conference and fifth over all in the NCAA, after surpassing his previous best indoor time of 1:49.88 set in 2021.

The time was also faster than the Jamaican national indoor record 1:46.70 set by Alex Morgan in Indianapolis in 1996, as the race was run on an oversized 300m track and cannot be recognised as a national record under World Athletics rules.

A day after the race Anderson told the Jamaica Observer he had been eyeing the Jamaican indoor record.

“I have been working along with my Coach Chris Woods and my team here at Mississippi State University and they have been pushing me towards higher heights and I’ve been feeling more confident, which led to a national record in a season opener,” he said.

Getting to that mark was “part of the process”.

“It’s a great achievement but there’s more to Navasky. It is a great feeling knowing I’m now the fastest Jamaican indoors and outdoors but we have serious business to be taken care of coming this summer. I’m going into this season with confidence and the mentality to stay humble, stay hungry, and keep working hard,” said Anderson

The former St Jago High runner said his aim is “to continue build on what I’ve started”.

“My goal is also to continue to inspire and motivate them [upcoming athletes] — and rewriting the history books is definitely one way how I can reach out to them,” he noted.

— Paul A Reid