NEW YEAR, NEW STRATEGY FOR WILLIAMS

THOUGH SHE would like to be on the podium at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Birmingham, England in March, Danielle Williams is using this indoor season to improve on the first part of her pet event, the 100-metre hurdles.

Williams, who won the 100m hurdles at the 2015 World Athletic Championships but failed to advance to the final in her title defence at the last staging in London, said that once she gets better at clearing the first five barriers, her race execution should improve significantly.

“We are using the first five hurdles to see if we can set up the rest of the race because once you improve the first part of the race, you should expect to see that carry on through the rest of the race,”Williams explained.

The former Queen’s School standout said it wasn’t because she struggled in the first part of the semi-finals of the 100m hurdles at the World Championships in London last year, which caused her to deploy this strategy. “Every year, we try and improve somewhere. Last year we focused on the start, and since there is no real major championship this year, we are focusing on the first part of the race,” Williams said. “The sprint-hurdle race is very short, and if you lose momentum going into the first two barriers, you spend a whole lot of time trying to recover and get back into running, so we decided to be more efficient and work on the start.”

NO PLANS TO CHALLENGE RECORD

Williams, who failed to finish at the last World Indoor Championships in Portland, Oregon, two years ago, has a personal best of 8.02 seconds for the 60m hurdles. She has no plans, however, to challenge Michelle Freeman’s 20-year-old 7.74 national record. “I have no plans to break the record. I didn’t even know what the national record is,”Williams said. Though nursing a slight hamstring strain, Williams is expected to open her season at the Millrose Games on January 27.