Williams close to sub 10.90 clocking says Boldon

The athletics world is still in awe of 17-year-old Briana Williams’ sublime 10.94-second run in the women’s 100m at the recently concluded JAAA/Supreme Ventures National Senior Athletics Championships, but her coach, Ato Boldon, warns that the teenager has a lot more in her tank.

Williams, who won the World Under-20 sprint double last year, made her first senior team by finishing third in the event, and Boldon believes that she will go much faster at the IAAF World Championships in Doha, Qatar, this September.

“I thought she was going to run 10.89 (at the National Championships), but I think what you are seeing here is just the genesis of something the world has never seen, and they will see because we are not preparing for June, we are preparing for the World Championships,” Boldon told The Gleaner.

Tenacity

The Trinidadian praised Williams’ tenacity and indicated that it is this trait that will enable her to take on competitors who have years of experience competing on the world stage.

“Briana will be ready for the World Championships,” he said. “Because if you watched the World Under-20 Championships last year, she doesn’t run any differently whether she is running 12 flat or she is running 10.7. She is going to execute (the race). If you are faster than her, you’re going to beat her on that night, but because she is such a good rounds runner, she will be tough to [beat],” Boldon said.

Williams’ 10.94 second effort made her the fastest Under-18 girl ever.

“I told people last year that she could be the best ever, and they say that ‘you’re the coach, you’re supposed to say it.’ Now you are seeing a 17-year-old running 10.94 seconds. She has made a lot of believers out of non-believers tonight,” Boldon said on Friday.

For those who believe that Williams’ running fast at such tender stage in her career may affect her longevity in the sport, Boldon said that he has been coaching her to sidestep those pitfalls.

“There is nothing anybody can do to stop Briana,” he said. “She can only stop herself, and I have shown her all of the persons who have come before her who were supposed to be great and didn’t make it, and they did not end up being the next. So she is going to avoid those pitfalls, and it is also a part of my job,” he said.