By Paul A. Reid, Staff Reporter
Stacy-Ann Livingston .... eyes set on representing Jamaica at the World Junior Championships. – Paul Reid
WESTERN BUREAU:
STACY-ANN Livingston can't wait to come home.
The 18 year-old high school senior at Boys and Girls High School in Brooklyn, New York will be returning to the shores of Jamaica in late June for the first time since she left three and half years ago.
When she left to join her family in 1998, she was one of thousands of unknown Jamaicans who made the northward trek to the proverbial 'greener pastures". When she returns this summer she will be hunting a place on the Jamaican team to the World Junior Championships to be held at the National Stadium later in the year in July.
Livingston burst on the track and field scene earlier this year when she ran a scorching 2:06.16 over the 800m, her pet event, on February 8 beating a number of College runners in the process.
Since then she has garnered a number of top awards including being named the High School Girl Athlete for Relay events at the recent 108th staging of the Penn Relays in Philadelphia. She led her team to victories in the Distance Medley Relay, running the 1200m leg in 3:35.1 seconds - the fourth fastest ever at Penn and anchored the 4x800m team that broke their American High School record set last year with a 11:49.34, the sixth fastest time ever run at the Relays in that event.
Boys and Girls' win in the two-mile relays marked the first time a Jamaican High School was failing to win the event in the last 16 years.
Vere Technical owns the record of 8:37.71 set way back in 1991.
She also anchored the 4x400m team that finished sixth in the final won by Holmwood Technical and her 54.6 seconds clocking on the anchor in Thursday's heats was the fastest that day.
Livingston has not always been running and told the Gleaner in an interview on Friday's second day of the Penn Relays that she only started running after she moved to the United States.
She was introduced to track and field by an uncle Rodney Greenidge who also attended Boys and Girls and competed in track and field.
Representing Jamaica has always been her dream since she started running Livingston who was born and raised in Port Maria, St. Mary, told the Gleaner.
"This is where I was born and you can't forget where you are coming from" she pointed out, adding with emphasis, "I am running for my school Boys and Girls, not for the United States."
The wins by Boys and Girls in the DMR and the 4x800m had prompted chants of "USA, USA, USA" by sections of the crowd on Thursday and Friday.
Livingston who attended the then Port Maria Comprehensive before migrating said that running in the Jamaican colours this summer would be a dream come true and would be a step in the right direction for her.
She told the Gleaner she had no expectation as to what she will face at the National trial in June but says she is coming to do her best, run her own race and let the chips fall where they might.
"I am not too concerned with what the other girls will be doing right now. All I can do is focus on my race and that should be enough."
One of the reasons she has not been back home since she left is because she has always been involved in the Boys and Girls summer programmes which includes lifting weighs she said.
The World Junior Championships will be another step on her way to other things she said as she is currently consulting with her family and advisors as to which University to attend. The offers have been piling up but she has narrowed down her choices to include middle to long distance powerhouses Arkansas, Tennessee and Tulane.
Livingston was adamant that she will not attend any school that will not help her maximize her talents.
"I am a middle distance runner and not a sprinter. I am not going to any school that will want me running too many sprint events."
She also said she would choose a school that would not be depending on her to bring home the bacon at every meet insisting she wanted to go to a school that will have a team of middle to long distance runners around her.
If she overcomes the odds and make the Jamaican team, she will join a growing list of athletes who did not attend high school here in Jamaica but went on to represent Jamaica in international meets. The last athlete to make that list is the current Seton Hall University star Nolle Graham.
