The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

AFTER spending the past year and-a-half at the University of Georgia under the supervision of coach George Cleare, quarter-miler Shaunae Miller is packing her bags to head to a new location under a different coach.

In January, the World Indoor Championships bronze medallist will be joining American coach Lance Brauman and his stable of world-class athletes in his Pure Athletics Club that includes American sprinter Tyson Gay. Jamaican superstar Veronica Campbell-Brown was a former member.

“Things just didn’t work out with the coaching,” said Miller of her sting with Cleare. “We had our differences of opinion, so we decided to part.”

When contacted for comments, Cleare declined to comment. He referred The Tribune to Miller’s management team, indicating that once they make an official statement, he will respond.

Miller, the IAAF World Junior Championship (2010 in Moncton, Canada) and IAAF World Youth Championship (2011 in Lille, France) 400m champion, opted not to go into any details about her split from Cleare, only to say that she’s excited about her move to her new environment.

“I’m really excited about the change,” she said. “I will have a lot of good training partners down there, so I’m really excited about it and I’m really looking forward to some great things.”

The 20-year-old 2012 graduate of St Augustine’s College had enrolled at the University of Georgia. But after running in just the indoor season, she signed a professional contract to compete for Adidas. The deal allowed her to compete on the pro circuit and at the same time allowed her to continue her education at the University of Georgia.

While she has posted a personal best of 50.70 seconds in 2013, Miller’s season’s best in 2014 was 51.58 that she recorded in the semifinal of the 20th Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland. She attributed her lacklustre performance to a series of injuries that she sustained.

Hopefully, the change will revitalise her career next year.

“I’m looking forward to some great things. Hopefully I will have a healthy season,” she said. “Then hopefully I can get my times down to where I need to be competitive on the senior level as I’ve been on the junior level.”

With the IAAF World Championships in Beijing, China, in August as the highlight of 2015, Miller said she wants to make sure that she is fit and ready to contend for her first senior global medal to go along with the bronze she claimed in March at the World Indoors in Sopot, Poland.

“I won’t call it one of my best seasons,” Miller said. “I’m still thankful that I was able to get through it, but it wasn’t a good season for me. I had a lot of injuries and I wasn’t pleased with the times that I ran. So I’m just looking to bounce off those times and have a very good season next year.

“I’m expecting a lot of great things next year. I’m going to be in a very good training camp and so I’m sure that coach Brauman will help me to achieve some of the goals that I didn’t achieve this year.”

And while her education will remain a priority in her life, Miller said she intends to continue her studies either online or by enrolling at the University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando, Florida.

In addition to Gay, Brauman also coaches Jamaican rising male stars Nickel Ashmeade and Ramone McKenzie and Trinidad & Tobago’s Keston Bledman as well as Trinidad & Tobago’s Kelly-Ann Baptiste and American Tori Bowie and Octavious Freeman.

Miller, who stands at 6-feet, one-inch, is the daughter of coach Shaun and May Miller, an executive within the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations. Her uncle is Joel Stubbs, a professional bodybuilder and a pilot with Bahamasair.