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Lavender’s dream put on hold

Steubenville graduate taking advantage of delayed Olympics

WAITING GAME — Big Red graduate Ja’Quan Lavender has no issues waiting another year to compete for the Tokyo Olympics. -Contributed

STEUBENVILLE — The dream is worth the wait, at least that’s how Steubenville High School graduate Ja’Quan Lavender feels.

Lavender has been training with hopes of earning an Olympic Trials and eventual berth in the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo in the 400-meter dash.

Now, Lavender — like all other Olympic hopefuls — will need to wait at least another year to realize their dreams because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which led to the IOC pushing the games back one calendar year.

Lavender had no issues with the decision and wasn’t really that surprised when the IOC opted to postpone.

“The IOC made a good choice. They delayed it for safety reasons,” Lavender said. “This delay doesn’t set me back. It just sets me up for a big comeback.”

Lavender, who competed at Point Park and Tiffin University after Big Red, actually believes the year delay could prove beneficial. It’s an additional 365 days to become bigger, faster and stronger.

“This (delay) is a great time for me to be working on my 400 time,” Lavender said. “I look at this situation as a positive outcome to be able to train an extra year to really focus on getting stronger and being able to work on my speed and endurance.”

In the 400-meter dash, a male athlete must have ran a 45.20 at minimum to earn a trip to Hayward Field at the University of Oregon for the Olympic Trials.

With his training going extremely well and making steady progress, Lavender believes he was in a good spot to post that time.

“I was closing in on that time day by day,” Lavender said. “I was running fast times in practice, which was setting me up to be able to run fast (times in a meet). Seeing a lot of improvements in practice gave me a lot of confidence that I would be able to compete with those (elite) guys. One thing I do is write the time down and pray about it. I ask God to give me the strength to be able to run that time.”

While the physical side changes slightly, the mental approach remains totally the same for Lavender: Remain steadfast in the training and continue the same approach. Everything is just delayed in terms of the calendar.

“Even though a year seems so far away, I can’t worry about that, I just have to keep striving to earn my spot,” he said.

With basically the entire sports world — including track and field — shut down because of the virus, finding opportunities to compete and continue to lower his time are few and far between. That’s partially where the mental approach has to remain the same.

“I will continue to train with my coach, Jack Thornton, who has been working with me since eighth grade,” Lavender said. “He has a training program set up for me that I follow. We will do time trials every six weeks to evaluate where I am on my training and see how much I improved. Those time trials will be my track meets over the next several months … just me vs. me.”

Once the virus concerns clear and the world begins to get back to a level of normalcy, Lavender plans to re-locate to Colorado to continue his training and preparation.

One of the biggest areas where Lavender has had to adjust is the mental side of sports. He’s aware that there are plenty of people doubting his abilities and chances of reaching the highest level of track and field.

“Being doubted comes with being great,” Lavender said. “People doubted Jesus when he was performing His good works, so I know (people) are going to doubt me. My faith and burning passion to succeed will not let me fail.”

Lavender had a highly decorated track career at Steubenville. He was the OVAC champion, qualified for the state outdoor meet and was a multiple-time placer and competitor in the OATCCC State Indoor Meet.

At the college level, Lavender focused on the 200, 400 and 4×400.

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