Cache looking for more improvement in 2014

One of The Bahamas’ most versatile track and field athletes had a breakthrough season a year ago, and is looking forward to more improvement in 2014.

Cache Armbrister, 24, was home for about three weeks over the Christmas holidays, spending time with her family and catching up with friends. Now back in Kingston, Jamaica, Armbrister is really hoping to ascend to the upper echelon of track and field athletes in the country. In Jamaica, she trains with some of the best athletes in the world, including multi World and Olympic medalists Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake and Warren Weir, as a member of the Racers Track Club. To say that her one year, so far, at Racers paid dividends might be an understatement. In just one year, she dropped three tenths of a second off her 100-meter time, and qualified for the Moscow World Championships in the process. In

doing so, she recorded two victories over Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie, the first two over the former ‘Golden Girl’ in her athletic career. She had a season’s best time of 11.35 seconds in the 100 meters (m).

“I’m very happy with it. I qualified for worlds, even though it was a ‘B’ standard, and to do it as a quarter-miler in the 100 meters was extra special for me. I’m very proud with that,” said Armbrister. “I think that it really goes to show what I can do if I put in the background training. After just starting training for the 2013 season in December 2012, I didn’t get the full background training in the 400, so I wouldn’t have been able to run at my full potential. The sprints came along a lot quicker, so we decided to go with that,” she added.

Armbrister maintains that she hasn’t switched to the shorter sprints though. She said that she is still open to run the 400m in 2014, but with her success in the shorter sprints last year, it’s good to know that she can branch off in that direction.

“I like the 400, and the 200 is still my favorite event, but I was very excited about the level of improvement I showed in the 100 meters. I don’t really have the blocks, and I didn’t really have time to learn the 100, so to show the level of improvement what I did, I was very pleased with that. Right now, it’s fun for me – to do really well in events what I don’t really class as my events,” said Armbrister.

Even when she was home here in Nassau, Armbrister said that she was still training six days per week under the guidance of Coach Tyrone Burrows. She returned to Jamaica yesterday, where she will be under the watchful eyes of Coach Glen Mills from the Racers Track Club, training twice per day, six times per week. Armbrister is in the second of a three-year deal with Racers.

“I’m training for pretty much everything this year. I’m not going to limit myself,” said Armbrister. “I’m sure it will be a good surprise for people to see what events I line up in, but I’m just taking it one day at a time, and hoping for a healthy season. I feel good. I feel like I could have success in all three of the sprints, so it’s just a matter of how the rest of my training goes. What I can say about Racers, is that they saw the potential in me and decided to help me work on my skills so that I can really be a force to reckon with. Right now, I’m just working with different things, and trying to get stronger. Training is going very well,” she added.

On working with top notch athletes such as Bolt, Armbrister said that it’s a wonderful experience, and one that she truly embraces.

“One thing that I learned, is that no matter how good you are, no matter how much of a star you are, you always have to put in the work to experience success – 24/7,” she said. “Usain Bolt has been number one for quite some time now, and he still puts in the work. There are a lot of very good Jamaican athletes here, and they all put in the work. Usain is very good at motivation and individual coaching. During workouts, if he sees that your form is not right, or that you’re tired, he’ll say a few things to keep you going or to give you the proper technique. He’s a team player,” she added.

As far as her two victories over Ferguson-McKenzie in 2013 is concerned, Armbrister said that she didn’t go into the races saying that she wanted to beat any particular person. She said that it was just a matter of her getting out fast and maintaining a steady pace. Armbrister finished second behind Sheniqua Ferguson at the nationals, in 11.44 seconds, and finished fifth at the Sr. Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Championships in 11.42 seconds after running 11.35 seconds in the heats. Ferguson-McKenzie ran times of 11.50 and 11.85 seconds at those events respectively.

“I just went out there and executed well,” said Armbrister. “Everyone wants to do well, but it wasn’t a matter of me saying that I wanted to beat this one or that one. The race was just me getting a blow out, and I ended up having a really good race.”

Armbrister doesn’t have any individual indoor meets or races lined up for the early part of 2014, but she said that she is available for national team consideration if the need arises. Her first meet of the year will be the Camperdown Classic, set for February 8, at the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica.

“Right now, I’m still not sure about opening up in the 400. It will be based on my training and how strong I am,” said Armbrister.

She definitely hopes to be home to run in the 2nd Chris Brown Bahamas Invitational (CBBI), tentatively set for Saturday April 12, at the new Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium. She ran 54.11 seconds in the 400m at last year’s inaugural CBBI. As for the 2014 world relays right here at home, she said that she’s real excited about that and could see herself running all three sprint relays if she is healthy.

“It’s always fun to run here at home, and for us to be hosting the world relays for the first time, it will be a good time to put on a good show,” she said. “The good thing is that it’s just relays, so it’s not that taxing. If I’m needed to do two or three relays, I could certainly do that. At the end of the day, it will all be fun. When I ran at the Chris Brown Invitational last year, the track felt pretty quick. I just hope that the new one that they are putting down now will be quick as well.”

The 2014 World Relay Championships are set for May 24-25, at the new Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium.

Armbrister said that she is setting any goals for herself this season as far as times are concerned. She said that she just wants to run very fast, and correct some of the small things that hindered her progress in 2013, such as getting out of the blocks fast and not executing the phases of her race properly. She’s confident that once she gets those things sorted out, the lower times will come.

“I’m thankful for a great season last year, and I just want the Bahamian people to continue to pray for Cache,” she said. “The sport of track and field is really developing in The Bahamas. When you look at what Shaunae (Miller) and Anthonique (Strachan) are doing, and even Sheniqua (Ferguson), the future is extremely bright for track and field in The Bahamas. There are people who are filling in the spaces left by the ‘Golden Girls’. The junior athletes are just as hungry as we are. We have a lot of new faces and a lot of people who want to keep The Bahamas on the map. It’s a really good thing,” she added.

Armbrister is hopeful that her times continue to drop, in all three sprints, as she moves through the 2014 season, and leading up to the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, China, and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.