Zenith Velocity is a club track team, based in New York, but its members usually adults, and former high school athletes, are not restricted to reside in New York or the area.
Trevor Green, is the coach of Zenith Velocity, recently entered several runners into the St. John’s University Bill Ward track and field meet at St. Anthony’s School in Huntington Station, Long Island. Some of these athletes really looked sharp and are in top form.
Green is carrying a roster of 21 competitors, but not all of them competed in the meet, conducted in a tremendous facility.
“I’m trying to make sure that my guys get ready for the Olympic trials,” Green said during the competition. “Most of the athletes are from the New York-New Jersey area. A lot of them have citizenship from other countries such as Trinidad, St. Vincent, Guyana, Grenada, and Jamaica. The team practices outdoors at the Red Hook Field in Brooklyn and inside the Jersey City Armory.
They practice three hours a day and sometimes three or four days a week.
One of the top runners from Trinidad primarily in the 400 meters is Lalonde Gordon who has a 45.5 clocking to his list of credentials. Green entered him into and 200-meter dash of the St. John’s Meet.
Gordon finished a close second in the sprint with a time of 6.95 just missing out to first place finisher Kim Williams, who registered a 6.91. Gordon came back to win the longer 200-meter dash in 21.80.
“I put in a lot of hard training,” Grenada native Williams said. after his victory at St. Anthony’s. “I feel pretty good in winning. Last week I opened up with a 6.75 at Bucknell University.”
Williams, who presently resides in downtown Brooklyn, ran at Erasmus Hall High School.
Green also entered another athlete in the meet in Jose Veras, who was clocked in 23.24 for the 200 and 50.06 in the 400. Actually, his specialty is the 800.
Originally from Honduras, Green was not involved in sports during his high school days.
“As a team we are strong in the 200 and 400 meters,” added Green, while assessing his Zenith Velocity squad.
Right now the individuals are competing in the same meets as the college athletes are.
“It’s good because they push us,” said Gordon, who runs for his native land of Trinidad and Tobago, from where he came to New York at the age of 10. “Now I live in Cambria Heights and I run track professionally. I run (represent) for my country.
“By running in open meet, I get to travel to different places. I run locally against college (athletes). They push me.”
This marks Gordon’s second year on the Zenith Velocity team. And Coach Green has helped Gordon a lot.
“Because of him (Green) I jumped (improved) on my time a lot from 21.7 to 20.6 (in the 200) and 48 to 45.21 (in the 400) in over a year,” Gordon said. “My goal is to get a medal in the Olympics one day representing Trinidad and Tobago.”
“We ran on a nice flat track at St. Anthony’s (in the St. John’s meet),” said Williams . who also ran a 53.56 for 15th place in the 400 meters of the meet. I wanted to get my strength and endurance up.”
While the athletes continue with their specialties, they also will be following the sport of track and field. While the Millrose Meet has been taken out of Madison Square Garden for its first time, a new meet is being conducted and will be held Saturday Jan. 28 with the U.S. Open Track and Field Meet, as part of the USA T&F 2012 Visa Championship Series.
The elite athletes will be headed by miler Bernard Lagat, and who wants to miss him in action!
