THE Jamaica Observer has been reliably informed that national sprinter Briana Williams has now decided to join Michael Frater at his new track club in Kingston.

It is understood that Williams, who recently left Titans International Track Club, began training with Frater’s club last week. A source close to Frater says he has yet to decide on the name of his new club as they are still working on the various aspects and logistics of the set-up.

Williams will join Ackeem Blake and former world 100m champion Yohan Blake, who also recently departed Titans track club.

Frater, who won a silver medal in the men’s 100m at the 2005 World Athletics Championships, formed Titans with Gregory Little in 2020.

When contacted yesterday, however, Frater said that he will not be commenting on the matter.

Track and field analyst Donald Smith says he supports Williams’ decision to remain in Jamaica and train, and it is now up to her to work even harder to achieve her goals for next year.

“To be honest, this is only her second year training locally. And I would not have a problem with her staying another year to see how she can improve because she did show some amount of improvements coming to the end of last season — and that is why she was able to go to the World Championships,” Smith said.

“However my question, though, is that I don’t know the dynamics that existed at Titans when Little and Frater were there together, as in who did the bulk of the workouts with her, and who wrote the programmes. And if it is a case of where Frater is the one who did most of that then, clearly, it will be in her best interest to continue with him.

“However if it is not the case and Little did most of that, then I guess it is a risk that she is willing to take to give it another year to see if she makes any other improvements for the upcoming season.”

Williams, who had a series of injuries throughout the 2023 season, was a member of Jamaica’s 4x100m relay team which won the silver medal at the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary in August.

She was the eighth-fastest Jamaican over 100m last season with a time of 11.01 seconds. Shericka Jackson of MVP Track Club, who is the reigning world 200m champion and the 100m silver medallist in Budapest, was the fastest Jamaican in the world with a time of 10.65s.

Williams became the youngest athlete to win the women’s 100m and 200m double at the 2018 World Under-20 Championships in Tampere, Finland, at age 16.