Ato Boldon Guides Khalifa St. Fort To Her Dreams
By Johanna Gretschel MileSplit Spotlight May 27, 2015With a sizzling 11.43, Khalifa St. Fort ran the third-fastest wind-legal 100m in the nation this year to win the Golden South Classic last weekend. The victory was noteworthy not only as the final auto qualifier for the adidas Dream 100, a showdown amongst the nation's best sprinters at the adidas Grand Prix on June 13, but also for defeating the best short sprinters in the state of Florida.
Some of those girls were her former teammates. St. Fort, a junior at St. Thomas Aquinas, was not part of the Raiders' third consecutive Florida Class 4A State Championship team title earlier this month.
No one will say exactly why, but the powerhouse sprint program - which has produced multiple state champions as well as the national high school record in the 4x200m (1:33.43) last year - may be without the fastest kid in school.
St. Fort's last race in the gold and blue uniform was an 11.46 (+4.4) 100m runner-up finish at the Texas Relays in March, which came at the heels of racing legs on the 4x100m, 4x200m and 4x400m relays.
That was her last meet, period, this season before Golden South.
St. Fort is no longer coached by Alex Armenteros, the STA head coach and 2014 National Track and Field Coach of the Year, as named by the National High School Coaches' Association.
But his replacement is no slouch. That's Ato Boldon, the four-time Olympic medalist and the Trinidad and Tobago national record holder for 50m, 60m and 200m. Since retiring from the sport in 2004, Boldon has developed into one of the most recognizable personalities in the sport of track and field. He is an ESPN and NBC Sports broadcast analyst and was recently named an IAAF Ambassador.
"Understand this is not what I do - go seeking high school athletes," Boldon said. "I am busy traveling the world and broadcasting in my jobs as broadcaster and ambassador for the sport, but when I see a young talent being wasted, I am compelled to get involved."
Lost In The Mix At A PowerhouseKrystal Sparling and Khalifa St. Fort finished second and third, respectively, for St. Thomas Aquinas in the 2014 Florida Class 4A State 100m finals with Diamond Spaulding taking fifth. The trio also took second, third and fourth in the 200m finals.A year ago, St. Fort was just one of many talented sprinters on the St. Thomas Aquinas roster.
She was nowhere near the star on a team that featured Kendall Ellis, a 52.95 400m/24.18 200m talent; Krystal Sparling, a 11.34 100m/23.34 200m runner as a junior; and Diamond Spaulding, an all-star pick-up after transferring from American Heritage with 11.51 100m/23.00 200m credentials.
With a total of about 30 highly competitive student-athletes on the roster for a team that swept the boys and girls state titles, St. Fort was the one who got lost in the mix.
"Unfortunately, St. Thomas had too many kids on it so it was hard for Coach Alex to coach us on individual aspects when he has such a big team," she said.
As a middle schooler, she was a 12-second 100m sprinter. But two years later at STA, she was still awaiting improvement.
Bewildered, her parents reached out to Boldon for guidance. Luckily for the St. Fort family, one of the most well-regarded personalities in the sport of track and field resides in Miramar, Florida and was willing to evaluate their daughter.
"I said to [Mr. St. Fort], 'she could be as good as she wants to be, she's definitely exceptional.' He looked at me, like 'you must say that to everyone.'
"I am extremely busy so I am not in the habit of going out and seeking athletes to coach," Boldon said. "...I said, 'I think she's exceptional and I would be willing to work with her.'"
This evaluation took place in March of 2014. Two months later, St. Fort had improved from a consistent 12-second sprinter to an 11.7 girl. She contributed a solid 22 points to the 2014 Florida Class 4A state title, including two third-place finishes in the 100m and 200m, as well as a leg on the winning 4x100m relay. By the end of the championship season, she improved her PR to 11.51.
This all while attending her regular after school practices at St. Thomas Aquinas, then training with Coach Boldon on weekends and a few days during the week, as schedules allowed.
"She ran 11.51 last year and... she was really bad out of the blocks because no one had ever showed her how to start properly," Boldon said. "That was No. 8 in the country last year."
The St. Forts told Armenteros that they were consulting Boldon before they approached the analyst.
"Because he had such little regard for her, he said, 'no problem,'" Boldon said. "She went from 12.5 to 11.5 in a matter of months. Then it became a problem for him."
St. Fort started training full-time with Boldon in October, doing conditioning to prepare for this spring.
Khalifa St. Fort was the surprise victor in the 2015 Golden South Classic 100m."By the time she went back to practice, she was looking different, blowing everybody away in practice," Boldon said. "And I think it just became, you can't serve two masters. And buying into my philosophy, she couldn't buy into the philosophy at her high school. It became a problem for St. Thomas Aquinas for her to be working with me."
St. Fort suited up one final time in the Raiders' gold and blue for the Texas Relays during the weekend of March 25 to 28, where she ran her then-PR of 11.46.
"After Texas Relays, we had a little bit of issues, but I'd rather not get into specifics," St. Fort said. After that, I decided to train with Coach Ato full-time... I have nothing bad to say about the St. Thomas Aquinas program, it just wasn't working with me physically and personally."
Back to CompetitionWith a two-month layover between the Texas Relays and the Golden South Classic, neither St. Fort nor Boldon knew what to expect.
"I've never had two months off from racing," St. Fort said. "[But] it didn't affect me at all, to be honest, because the same intensity I bring to practice is the same intensity I have in a race. So nothing feels different."
Training full-time with an Olympian is not easy.
"I have a lot of people who come and do not last a week with me," said Boldon. "It's not a democracy. I am very set in my ways."
But having one philosophy to follow has helped St. Fort focus.
"Coach Ato's philosophy just works better for me to understand the sport," she said. "He explains everything that we're doing and he makes sure I understand what we're doing and why we're doing it and the dangers of what I could do if I don't do it right."
See below for a typical training week with Khalifa St. Fort and Ato Boldon.
DAY | TYPICAL TRAINING |
Monday | 9x60m or 6x60m followed by all-out 200m, or 300-200-100 ladder |
Tuesday | Form starts out of the blocks to 10m, 20m mark - "making sure my drive phase is okay," arms are where they're supposed to be, make sure I'm staying low" |
Wednesday | 9x30m or 5 starts coming out of the blocks to 10m, 4 starts to 20m, 3 starts to 30m |
Thursday | Stairs Day - 1 flight of 24 steps, girls climb in 5 double-legged bounds, boys do 4 bounds |
Friday | OFF Day or practice block starts |
Saturday | Race Day or 7x100m |
Sunday | OFF Day |
The key test is Thursday's stairs workout.
"When I watch my athletes go up the stairs, I know how ready they are," Boldon said. "When they do it in a very, very easy fashion, I know they are ready.
"Khalifa did that in the last two weeks and she's running 60 meters in the low seven seconds range and then to see her go up those steps, it's just a question of she has to go up [to race] and execute."
On the line at the Golden South Classic 100m, St. Fort got set in her blocks next to Sparling and Spaulding, who were hot off a Raiders team title at the 4A state meet. The PA introduced the high school junior as the least heralded of the St. Thomas Aquinas trio.
"One girl from St. Thomas is gonna make it, but probably not the one most people thought was gonna make it between Spaulding and Sparling," said MileSplit race commentator Brandon Miles. "It's St. Fort!"
It was St. Fort who snuck up on the inside, racing a personal record of 11.43 as the surprise victor.
The adidas Dream 100 is on Friday, June 13. But before that, St. Fort and Boldon will travel to Trinidad and Tobago for the national junior trials to qualify for the World Youth Championships this summer in Cali, Colombia.
"My mom's side of the family is from there so I have a lot of family there," said St. Fort, who visited the Caribbean nation once as a seven-year-old. "I've always wanted to run for them in the Olympics and it's something that [Boldon] made possible. It makes me feel really happy that I'm about to go down the same path that he went down and that I'm able to make the country that I hold dear to my heart proud."
The next step is qualifying.
The first step was believing.