Ato Boldon Guides Khalifa St. Fort To Her Dreams

May 27, 2015

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With 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.