GOULE COULD BE J’CA’S BEST EVER – ELLIOTT

By Leighton Levy

Mark Elliot, coach of Natoya Goule believes the 22-year-old national champion can go well below the 1:59.93 she ran last year to claim the title and perhaps go on to become Jamaica’s best ever at the distance.

Elliott was reacting to the athlete’s performance at the Millrose Games last weekend when running in her season debut over the distance, Goule finished third in 2:02.22, slightly slower than her indoor best of 2:02.00. Elliott coached Goule last season at Louisiana State University (LSU) when she won both the NCAA indoor and outdoor titles. When he departed to become head coach at Clemson University Goule followed him there.

“I think it’s a great time for her based on the way she is progressing this season,” Elliott said. “Last year she ran 2:02.00 at the NCAA meet to win and that was after having a full indoor season and full cross country season so she was ready to rock. She was right at her PR going out her first time. You could see she was not as race sharp as the rest of the girls so it’s a really good start for her. She was right there with the 1:58-runners from outdoors. I was pretty pleased with it.”

Elliott believes Goule is stronger and if the race rabbit had done a better job, she could have gone a lot faster. “Her last 200 was faster than everyone else’s. It was right at 30 (seconds) and normally she goes out at 1:28. The problem is the rabbit they had in the race who was more of a snail. She actually made the race and that was the problem because I purposely asked for a rabbit because I knew Natoya did not have race sharpness. If she had gone out even at 1:29 she still would have finished with 30 or 31 and that shows the strength that she has now.”

Goule’s improved strength has come as a result of work she started doing last year at LSU. “I had her lift weights while we were at LSU but it was gradually teaching her and getting her strong now this year she is lifting like a person actually needs to, but in that race she definitely showed that she does have the strength because that last 200 was one of the fastest 200s she had in that race so I was pretty pleased with that.”

The aim for Goule, he said, is for her to run low 1:58s this season when she will not compete for Clemson because of her transfer. Those times, he said, will make her into a championship contender. “If the measure is winning Olympic gold then she still has a way to go but I think if she can consistently run 1:58s and run a 1:57 she can definitely win championships and that’s my goal for her because she definitely has the talent and ability to do that,” he said. “With both of us being Jamaican I want to see where she can go, probably following Kenia Sinclair’s footsteps and maybe even exceeded that at some point.”

Improving on her personal bests in a year when there are no major championships, he said, could actually work to Goule’s benefit. “We are trying to progress her towards Olympics and World Championships so this year, if she seldomly races, and focuses on her personal record then that’s a good thing,” he said. “She came out of a very good high school. She ran a lot of events there. She went to a junior college. She had a lot of events there. In her first year at LSU, I kind of minimized what she did but those were still enough events so I think in a roundabout way, she is getting a rest year and at the same time still trying to compete and progress.”