Williams motivated despite technical issues

ANY athlete would have been happy about posting a personal best in their respective events, but this was not the case for National Senior 100m hurdles champion Danielle Williams, who clocked a career best of 12.56 seconds to regain her title she won two years ago, and at the same time, made up for her disappointment a year ago when she crashed out of the event and ruined her Olympic dreams.

On Sunday in the final, it was very competitive and despite several problems during the race, the world champion was still able to come out on top. "Today (Sunday), it was my worst race of the season, technically. After so many problems, and to have achieved a personal best, this has definitely boosted my self-confidence to know that I ran that fast. It goes to show that once I fix those issues I had tonight (Sunday), I can go faster," she said.

Williams could have bypassed the Championships, being the current world champion, which automatically gave her a lane in London, but she did not have that on her mind. Instead, she participated in her pet race and the 100m. "My coach and I looked at the schedule and we decided that we could do both events, as after completing the 100m, there was a day's break before the hurdles. So we decided to get some speed in the 100m. For the hurdles, we had been working on some things in practice the previous week, and we wanted to see how it transferred into competition," Williams said.

NEGATIVE PREDICTION A BOOST

With young Rushelle Button doing well and being the number one athlete going into the Championships, many thought that Williams would have been beaten. However, Williams said that not being predicted to win motivated her. "When I saw those predictions, I was highly motivated, as I love to compete and I thrive on competition. The higher the competition, the faster I run most times, as I use that not to really prove myself, but to show that I am not to be taken lightly," she said.

Asked about her chances of defending her title successfully in London, she said: "My focus will be on using each round to get better. Once I do that, I can secure a spot on the medal podium. Although the aim is to get gold, the colour does not matter," she concluded.