CLEARING HURDLES — THE BETTER WAY
It’s no accident that Alberta’s Watson is on an unbeaten roll in 400-metre event
Win 13 races in a row and people talk.
Sage Watson hears them. She doesn’t agree with what they’re saying, but she definitely hears them.
“A lot of people have said they’re surprised, but I think I was just always underestimated,” said Watson, whose winning streak in the 400-metre hurdles has included both NCAA and Canadian championships. “I’ve been improving since I was young by a second every year. For me it’s not a breakout year. It’s just that people are finally noticing what I’m doing and I’m just going to keep doing it.”
Not the winning, necessarily. The 23-year-old from Medicine Hat, Alta. can’t control that, in part because she has no idea who will be ready to run fast at the world championships in London this month, who might clip a hurdle or tighten up in the last 100 metres. That element of unpredictability drew her to this event, and keeps it interesting.
She’ll just keep doing what she’s been doing all year, which is to say running smart, fast races. She lowered her personal best to 54.52 seconds along the way.
“I never really thought about being undefeated. I just thought about finally doing what I’m capable of doing. I felt I hadn’t really got the chance to showcase what I’m capable of over the past couple years, just because of changes in training and coaches.”
After her collegiate career stalled at Florida State, she transferred to the University of Arizona and flourished. She loves the atmosphere in Tucson, believes in the wisdom and guidance of coach Fred Harvey and is inspired by training partner Georganne Moline.
Watson got serious about hurdling in 2011, but admits she wasn’t very good until last year, her first at Arizona. She had no stride pattern, no rhythm, very little strategy. She just ran as fast as possible and jumped over everything in the way. “Now I’ve gotten better and I understand what it takes to be a great hurdler.”
The string of victories in 2017 are both proof and byproducts: of hard work on the track and in the gym; of Harvey’s teachings and Moline’s impact.
And they keep coming: the Jim Click Shootout, Horned Frog Invitational, Duel in the Desert. Two races at the PAC 12 Championships. Two rounds of the NCAA Division 1 west preliminaries. Two more at the NCAA Finals. A semifinal and the final at the Canadian championships in Ottawa, where Watson punched her ticket to worlds. Her first win as a pro in Madrid. Her second in Belgium.
She is unbeaten, not unbeatable. It’s an important distinction as far as it goes, but Watson spends little time thinking of either.
“The streak will end at some point for everyone. You can’t let it get into your head. I go into each race knowing I want to do the best I can on the day. If that puts me maybe second but I still ran my best, that’s not a defeat. To me, anyway. But of course I always go into a race to win.”
She remembers the last time she didn’t. All too well.
“It still bothers me. I think it will forever bother me, knowing I didn’t run my best when it counted. At the same time, it was my first Olympics.”
Yes, Watson hasn’t lost a 400-metre hurdles race since finishing fourth in her semifinal at the Rio Olympics. She laments a spur of the moment decision to switch lead legs.
Her time of 55.44 seconds left her 11th overall, just .54 seconds out of the eight-woman final. It’s time to take the leap. “I’m tired of being a semifinalist. I’ve done it twice. It’s time to be a finalist.”
And if that happens in London? “If I’m in that final, I’m definitely going for a medal.”
She also has set her sights on Rosey Edeh’s Canadian record of 54.39 seconds, which has stood since July 30, 1996. Watson was two years old. She obviously doesn’t remember it, and has never seen it on video.
But the two talked about an assault on the number and it seemed to Watson as if Edeh was granting permission, and acknowledging the likelihood.
“The record is definitely a goal this year and I am working very hard toward it,” Watson said. “I should have it by the end of this summer.”