Jessica Lewis Teams Up With New Coach
[Written by Stephen Wright]
Jessica Lewis has teamed up with a new coach as she prepares for the World Para Athletics Championships in Paris next month.
The sprinter has spent the past month working with coach Geoff Harris, who represented Canada in the 800 metres at the Olympic Games in London in 2012.
Lewis, who specialises in the T53 100, is in a two-week training camp at the Canadian Sports Institute Pacific in Victoria, British Columbia.
“Geoff is one of the Canadian team’s national coaches on the para side,” Lewis said in a video posted on Instagram.
“I’m so thankful to Geoff and everyone at Athletics Canada and the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Sports Institute for all they have done to give me this opportunity to train here before the worlds.”
For the past five years, Lewis has trained under coach Curtis Thom, the son of her longtime mentor, Ken Thom, who died in a scuba-diving accident in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2017.
“It’s also a bittersweet time as I’m so incredibly grateful for all coach Curtis did for me over the past five years,” Lewis added.
“I honestly can’t thank him enough for stepping in when he did to be sure I didn’t lose the sport after Ken’s passing.
“I think we should both be incredibly proud of what we accomplished in those five years, and I know Ken would be as well.
“Curtis and I both felt this was an opportunity I could not pass up. Life looks extremely different, which is exciting and a bit nerve-wracking, but I think living with the ‘what-if ‘would be much worse.”
The World Para Athletics Championships runs from July 8 to 17.
