Gordon Williams, STAR Writer
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, (USA)

Lauryn Williams wants to make peace with Jamaica.

It's not that the 5'3" American sprint dynamo deliberately declared war on the island. But somewhere, right after the United States lost its shot at gold in the women's 4x100 metres to help cap a disastrous showing in the sprints at the 2008 Olympics, she got tangled in a heated web of controversy which, she said, caused her nothing but distress.

using supernatural methods

A post-race comment Williams made about "someone must have a voodoo doll on me" was interpreted by some as accusing Jamaicans of using supernatural methods to stop her and the US from succeeding. That lost in translation mess, she said, festered and boiled over into numerous hate mail. But criticising Jamaica was never her intention.

"Because that is not my personality," Williams explained at last weekend's Penn Relays, where she ran a blistering lead-off leg in the 4x100 metres USA vs the World event where the Americans beat Jamaica.

"They asked why America was not doing so well in the thing and I said 'I don't know, maybe someone has a voodoo doll'. I didn't say Jamaica's name and I don't know of any instance where Jamaica or their culture does anything with voodoo. I was just saying, you know, it was just an unfortunate karma situation."

threatened with harm

The reaction to Williams' comments was, in many cases, hostile. She was threatened with harm. It jolted the 2005 world champion hard.

"People took it as something (else)," Williams said. "It's really hurting to me that people put it on my case.

"I'm not that kind of person that backbites. They (Jamaica) did well. They did the best they could. I did the best I could on that day. So I can't take anything away from them for how they performed. They did excellent."

Jamaica dominated the sprints in Beijing. Led by Shelly-Ann Fraser, the women swept the first three places in the 100 metres. Veronica Campbell-Brown took 200 metres gold. Usain Bolt snatched two world records and gold medals in the 100 and 200 metres, and was part of Jamaica's 4x100 metres team to earn gold with a world record.

Williams makes no excuses for the US Olympic slump. Yet, she is not yet ready to admit Jamaica now owns the sprints. The 2009 IAAF World Champ-ionships in Athletics this August is a chance to turn the tables. She does not expect it to be so one-sided the next time the two countries face off in major international competition.

"I still think the US is gonna bounce back," Williams said. "We're not ones to take anything lying down and we're not going to roll over and say 'OK, you guys are the winners now'. I think everybody has gone home, they're training, they're getting themselves together.

"One thing we know for Americans was the injuries. We didn't have a healthy year last year, but you put healthy people on the track and they definitely are going to try to get back in.

"We're gonna be in the mix. We're gonna be, you know, maybe one Jamaican, one American, one Jamaican, one American. I think those are the two forefront countries for some time to come (in the sprints). We're gonna stay in the mix."

For now, she just wants to clear the air. Williams leapt to Jamaica's defence when some speculated about the country's performances in Beijing. But it was hard trying to shake the negatives attached to her "voodoo" comment. So when her father, who was from Trinidad, died last October, she finally decided not to burden herself anymore.

Now her focus is getting another crack at the ladies in black, green and gold. She hopes it's the same for her teammates.

"Yeah, definitely," said Williams with a huge smile. "I'm trying to do my part to make sure that I'm on the track and ready to compete against them. And I hope that everyone else, American sprinters, are doing the same thing so we can come back and we can be competitive."