Knight learns from Muhammad, inspired by Jackson

WHEN 400-METRE hurdler Andrenette Knight completed her US collegiate eligibility, she joined a training group directed by American coach Lawrence ‘Boogie’ Johnson. That move has paid dividends.

Now, the soft-spoken Knight is on her way to the 19th World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

She completed her time at the University of Virginia with a personal best of 55.75 seconds and a best NCAA Championship finish of third in 2021. Since joining Johnson’s Hurdle Mechanics group, she has improved in leaps and bounds. Though she fell while leading at the 2022 Jamaican National Championship final, she had set a personal best of 53.39 seconds in Nashville three weeks earlier.

This year, after placing second at the Nationals to book her ticket to Budapest, she has improved again to 53.26 seconds. She is grateful.

“It’s progress over a short period of time, but that goes to show that the work is being put in,” she said.

The work is supervised by Johnson and done alongside 2016 Olympic and 2019 World Champion Dalilah Muhammad, World and Olympic finalist Gianna Woodruff of Panama, and two-time NCAA champion Anna Cockrell of the USA.

The Jamaican has blossomed in this Fort Worth, Texas, group.

“Training is always great,” she said.

“It’s always a great atmosphere. It’s always competitive, so just practice in itself really prepares me for competition. I’m happy to be in a group that is so intense and just about their business. It’s all work,” Knight assessed.

“Everybody wants to achieve good things and their goals, and it pushes us to do better and to be our best selves every day at practice.”

2023 TIMES

Knight opened 2023 by clocking 56.17 at the Drake Relays. She followed up with times of 55.12 in the Bahamas, 54.90 in a blustery race in Bermuda, and 54.20 in Nashville before her runner-up run of 53.76 seconds at Nationals. Eleven days later, she produced her personal best in Székesfehérvár, Hungary.

It isn’t the first time Knight has found herself in a brilliant group. At Vere Technical High School, she joined forces with Yanique McNeil, Olivia James, and a certain Shericka Jackson. In 2013, they zoomed to a world high school 4x400 record of 3 minutes, 30.51 seconds at Boys and Girls’ Championships.

Weeks earlier, the same group set a Gibson-McCook Relay record of 3:33.54. Both marks still stand.

Jackson still inspires her.

“I’ve always looked up to her ever since I was in high school, and it’s always a joy to see her compete and to get to this level. It’s definitely an inspiration for me,” Knight submitted.

“Because we used to be on the same team and I know she’s a hard worker and the passion she has for the sport, it’s really an inspiration for me to see her go out there, and that gives me that motivation, like, why not me? I’m able to do the same things and accomplish these things.”