Jamaica resets Briana’s confidence – Boldon

According to coach Ato Boldon, last Saturday's race at Jamaica College has rebooted the confidence of Olympic 4x100 metres gold medallist Briana Williams. The comment came after Williams produced a classy performance to win the 100 metres at the last leg of the JAAA/SDF Jubilee Series on June 4.

Looking serene, Williams cruised to a wind-aided time of 10.91 seconds in the heats at Asheinheim Stadium on the grounds of Jamaica College. She returned to overcome a bad start to win the final in 10.97.

Boldon, a World 200m champion and four-time Olympic sprint medallist himself, said Williams requested the trip home after a modest outing at the Prefontaine Classic last month. "After Pre, I talked to her. I said, 'OK, what happened?' She said, 'I felt flat'. As an ex-sprinter, I know exactly how that happens, coming off a very heavy load. She said, 'Coach, I want to go to Jamaica. I can feel it. It's coming. I just need to reset. I need to go back home,' ", Boldon said after Saturday's meet.

"So, in essence, the truth is that whether she had run 11 flat or 10.90 or 11.10, once she leaves here with her confidence back, then mission accomplished," he said with a satisfied smile.

The accomplishment showed her ability to cope with mishaps as the 2018 World Under-20 100 and 200m champion reacted slowly to the gun in the final. "I actually secretly am glad that you had a little adversity tonight," he told her afterwards, "because you thought you were going to come down here and it was going to be a cake walk because the big three or the big four, whoever, is not here. I said that shows me that whatever happens to you in the coming weeks, that you can respond to it."

The happy coach concluded, "It says so much that's good coming out of this evening that I'm like okay, now regular service has been resumed."

Williams is now the sixth Jamaican to run the 100m in under 11 seconds this season.

With her confidence restored, Williams will get ready to race in New York on June 12. "We're gonna sharpen. Going to run New York next week and we're going to continue to sharpen for what is probably going to be the most competitive Jamaican Nationals ever. I don't ever recall high school, pros and everybody else running as fast as everybody in Jamaica is and that's why I had to change things this year. I can't have her show up this year thinking that 10.9 is going to make the team. That's not smart," Boldon calculated.

Williams finished behind Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce, Shericka Jackson and Elaine Thompson-Herah at last year's National Championships, with the top three producing times of 10.71, 10.82 and 10.84 seconds respectively on the day.

- Hubert Lawrence