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It’s weight off our shoulders - Graham

Published:Sunday | August 18, 2019 | 12:00 AMAkino Ming - Staff Reporter
Coach Lennox Graham (left) passes on instructions to Danielle Williams during a training session at the University of Birmingham ahead of the 2017 IAAF World Championships in London, England.

Noted Jamaican hurdles coach Lennox Graham admitted that he was relieved after the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) ruled on Thursday that his athlete, Danielle Williams, was eligible for selection for Jamaica’s team to next month’s IAAF World Championships in Doha, Qatar.

“It’s a weight off my shoulders,” Graham told The Sunday Gleaner. “It is a new challenge, but it is a challenge that we would rather have than the one before.”

Williams, the national record holder and 2015 world 100m hurdles champion, was previously ineligible for selection, following her disqualification from the event at the National Senior Championships in June.

The sprint hurdler’s refusal to leave the track, after being shown the red card, caused a lengthy delay to the championships and subsequent attempts to execute the race without her failed, first, due to the remaining athletes complaining of not hearing the starter’s gun and then following injuries to some of the competitors.

The JAAA declared the event null and void and stated that the country’s representatives in the 100m hurdles for Worlds would be selected based on the IAAF World Rankings as at August 16, 2019.

Possible route

Importantly, the body noted that Williams, by virtue of her false start, was not eligible for selection. Her only possible route was as a wild card entry if she managed to win the event in the Diamond Race even though JAAA president Dr Warren Blake also cautioned that in this scenario, the ultimate decision was still the prerogative of the JAAA.

However, the organisation changed its position, announcing on Thursday after a high-level meeting the night before, that the 26-year-old Williams was now in contention, while admitting that its own decision to declare the event null and void at the National Senior Championships meant that Williams’ disqualification could not stand. The JAAA also noted that it felt that the decision was the most fair option for all concerned and that it arrived after considerable consultation.

“ … Following international expert advice and a review of the selection policy, the association said that the fairest way to proceed is for the JAAA to make its selection decision based on multiple criteria listed in the published policy,” the JAAA statement said.

No changes

Nonetheless, Graham, who has been named on Jamaican coaching panels to the Olympic Games and World Championships, said that there would be no changes to Williams’ approach towards the rest of the season.

“The approach will be the same,” Graham said. “ We still have to deal with what is in front of us, which is Birmingham, Brussels, and possibly the World Championships.”

Williams, who has hit another gear since the incident in June, will line up against some of the best in the event at today’s Birmingham Diamond League meet.

“I think it (today’s race) will give good feedback, but it will not mean too much because in 2015 we were not winning on the circuit,” Graham said of Williams’ 2015 victory in the event at the World Championships in Beijing.

This time around, Williams, who tops the IAAF World Rankings and who also boasts the fastest time in the world this year – her national record 12.32 seconds done at the London Diamond League meet last month – will arrive in Doha as a strong contender for the gold medal.

Before that, she will turn up at the Brussels Diamond League final on September 6 as a favourite for the diamond. A win there would give the JAAA the right to a fourth entry in the 100m hurdles at the World Champs.

Until then, the business of Birmingham is before her, and with world record holder Kendra Harrison and her own countrywoman, Janeek Brown – the world number two on the top list beside her – she can’t afford to be thinking too far ahead.

akino.ming@gleanerjm.com