Clayton in love with the outside lane
Published:Friday | July 22, 2022 | 12:13 AMDaniel Wheeler/Staff Reporter
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EUGENE, Oregon: Before last month’s National Championships you could not get 2019 World Athletics Championship bronze medallist Rushell Clayton to like the outside lane in races this season. However, it has worked out both times in her favour on...
EUGENE, Oregon:
Before last month’s National Championships you could not get 2019 World Athletics Championship bronze medallist Rushell Clayton to like the outside lane in races this season.
However, it has worked out both times in her favour on her road to her second consecutive women’s 400 metres final, which takes place tonight at 9:50 Jamaica time.
Clayton has drawn the short straw in lane assignments as she was in Lane Two for the first round, clocking 54.99 in fourth place to qualify automatically and again in Lane Eight for the semi-finals. That semi-final saw her run a personal best time of 53.63 to make it back to the final, a year after her season ended because of injury.
Clayton says that it was at the National Championships in June where she ran in Lane Eight to finish third and book her senior team spot that triggered her love for the outside lane.
“Before the season, I hated the outside. I think Trials did something to me that I am grateful for. I’ve learnt to run on the outside, and it is doing good. And I love it,” Clayton said after her semi-final.
It has been the continuation of a year that has seen improve a greatly in her first season under Elite Performance track club head coach Reynaldo Walcott. Since her season opener in the discipline on April 9 when she clocked 55.89, she has got faster in five consecutive meets from May to June 30, when she clocked 53.90 in Stockholm, Swedent, her last meet before the World Championships.
IMPROVEMENT
Clayton says that she owes that improvement to how Walcott has coached her this year, in particular, how she managed to improve her first-round performance.
“He is the one guiding everything I do, along with all of my prayers and my hard work,” Clayton said. “I think I have gotten a lot faster because I still messed up part of the race.”
Clayton will start in Lane Two for the final in a field that includes Olympic champion and world record holder Sydney McLaughlin of the United States, her national teammate and defending world champion Dalilah Muhammad, and Femke Bol of Holland, who has the second fastest time in the world this year. In Lane One will be Britton Wilson of the United States, who has the third fastest time in the world this year.
For Clayton, her lane assignment is inconsequential as she is determined to give herself the best chance of getting on the podium.
Whatever lane I get, I’ll just have to do it because it is the same 400m hurdles. There is almost a medal on my mind,” she said. “That’s the reason why I run, to win medals.”