Young finding her feet in rookie professional season

In her first season as a professional, quarter-miler Charokee Young is finding out the rigours of the highest level, relying on a change in mindset to push her to her goals this season.

Young will be competing tonight in the 400m at the Racers Grand Prix, facing the likes of World Championships silver medallist Sada Williams of Barbados, as well as her compatriots 2013 World Championships bronze medallist Stephenie-Ann McPherson, Stacey-Ann Williams, Leah Anderson and Junell Bromfield.

Young is coming off a 2022 campaign which saw her make her first World Championships team in her final season at Texas A&M University, reaching the semi-finals of the 400m, being a part of the Jamaica team that took silver in the women’s 4x400m relay and also signed a contract with Puma.

While at Texas A&M the focus may have been about team success and Young says that she has had to shift her mindset in preparation for her rookie season at the elite level.

“One of the main differences running on the professional and on the collegiate level is my mindset. Whenever I was running in college I have to pull this off for my team. But as a professional athlete I have to do it for myself. So just that mindset shift, it s a little bit different and I have to find different ways of motivating myself as a professional,” Young told The Gleaner.

She has stayed consistent so far not finishing below third and clocked a season’s best time of 50.45 in her last meet at the NACAC New Life Invitational. Young says that while she has not had her game changing race so far this season she feels she is not far off and is committed to perfecting her technique to reach there.

“I don’t feel like it has clicked this season as yet. But I feel that it is pretty close and it is coming together,” Young assessed. “There is always something that you can change. Technically, I don’t feel like anyone’s arm swing is perfect, their leg action is perfect. So just a little bit of everything to my technique, that is what I have been working on.”

It is that improvement that she hopes will lead to a return to the World Championships team this year, something that she says would mean the world to her.