Williams is maturing – Boldon

When a young athlete gets the opportunity to compete against some of the best in their sport, there is undoubtedly a measure of fear and anxiety. Briana Williams seems to be the exception, however, as her coach Ato Boldon says his athlete has no fear of the bigwigs on the track.

Come February 8, Williams is set to line up in the women’s 60m event at the 113th NYRR Millrose Games at the Armory Track and Field Center in New York. Alongside her will be Allyson Felix, who is the most decorated athlete in the history of the sport, English Gardner, the defending Millrose 60m champion and Teahna Daniels, the reigning US women’s 100m champion.

Despite this, Boldon says Williams has no fear going into the race.

“Briana is not going into any race worried about what their name is,” he told The Gleaner. “Everybody has to run the same race. The objective of every sprinter is to put everybody who is next to you, behind you,” Boldon said. “I know that’s the advice that she’ll get from me.”

Nothing to prove

This is not the first time that Williams will be running with top athletes, having already faced off against Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Elaine Thompson at the National Senior Trials last year.

Boldon said that Williams will have nothing to prove as she prepares to get her 2020 season under way. Despite being cleared to compete at the 2019 World Championships in Doha after being found of ‘no-fault’ for banned substances, Williams chose to withdraw from the competition.

The Millrose meet will be one of the first few races since the incident, and Boldon says Williams is more than ready to go.

“She has nothing to prove,” he said. “She had a very challenging 2019 with her season kind of cut in half. She came back to practise with a resolve and determination that I had never seen from her before. She went from a juvenile Briana to an adult Briana. I had thought that at the [World] Championships, she would have ran 10.8s. So what she runs now, is what she was going to run in 2019 but didn’t get the chance to.”

Williams is set to open her 2020 season today in South Carolina before coming to Jamaica to take part in The Queen’s School/ Grace Jackson meet at the National Stadium on January 25.

- Gregory Bryce