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Bobby Kersee Optimistic About His Big Stars

Bobby Kersee Optimistic About His Big Stars

The noted SoCal coach sees big things in the future for Athing Mu and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. (KIRBY LEE/IMAGE OF SPORT)

RECENT MONTHS HAVE FEATURED a steady drumbeat of announcements of major athletes moving to LA to work with noted coach Bobby Kersee, who had already been training Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and her brother, 48.85 hurdler Taylor McLaughlin, among others.

Athing Mu is now working out alongside the 400H World Record holder, as is the AR holder in the 100H, Keni Harrison, plus Jenna Prandini and Brandon Miller.

Says Kersee, “I’ve not had a group like this since 1984, to be honest. I’ve got my older group actually discussing right now, probably as we speak, which group is better, the ’84 group or this group [laughs].

“They’re all good-character people. They love the sport, they want to compete in the sport. They’re looking to make USA track & field teams, get onto the international stage, win medals and hopefully get on top of the podium. That’s what I see in this group.

“They have a similarity in terms of competition and competing, but they also got the respect of one another to be able to go to their separate corners and get their work done and divide my time between them with no animosity and no jealousy.”

With the promotion of the upcoming LA Grand Prix, Kersee acknowledges that fans love to see the stars compete. But in ’22, their chances to see McLaughlin-Levrone — only 4 finals in her specialty — were limited.

Explains Kersee, “We were in a pandemic. So every time we moved and every time we’re going somewhere, there’s a fear of getting sick, dealing with the traveling and the restrictions and what have you. If it wasn’t that, we would have competed a little more and I would adjust the training around that.

“Having the experience of coaching over the years and getting athletes prepared, to use a boxing analogy, I’m not going to use heavyweight sparring partners every week leading up to a championship either. There’s some things that need to be done in the gym to get them trained and ready for the championship.

“I’m with you more, and the fans. I would like to see Sydney compete more, and Sydney wants to compete more.”

He says the pandemic forced him to design their training around multiple obstacles: “We had to go back and forth. One day UCLA was open and the next it was closed. We had to go to Arizona, we had to train on grass, we had to train in Santa Monica. I had to design…

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