Danielle Williams second time a World Champion

This can be a column that Stuart Weir liked to jot down about Danielle Williams, the 2015 and now 2023 champion at 100m hurdles!

Danielle Williams, second time a World Champion

The dash hurdles are one among my favorite occasions. It requires velocity but additionally technical capability and the race isn’t over till the ultimate hurdle has been efficiently negotiated. In the identical manner that many individuals choose girls’s tennis to males’s (finesse in opposition to energy), I choose girls’s hurdles to males’s. It’s someway swish or poetry in movement. 

The Budapest remaining appeared huge open with no clear favorite. The world rankings have Tobi Amusen first and Jasmine Camacho-Quinn second. Keni Harrison is third, and Nia Ali is fifth.  Amusen was the reigning world champion and the present world document holder, however her 2023 type has been blended. Keni Harrrison earlier world document holder, winner of 14 Diamond Leagues, world indoor champion, and Olympic silver medalist however has but to win an outside world title.  Camacho-Quinn is the reigning Olympic champion who has received 8 Diamond Leagues within the final 18 months.  Then there’s Nia Ali, aged 34 a former world champion and within the type of her life.

Danielle Williams, additionally a former world champion, however with no constant type in 2023, solely certified for the ultimate on time, ending third in her semi-final. Her prelim and semi instances of 12.51 and 12.50, each seasons’ bests, didn’t look as if it will hassle Keni Harrison – 12.24 within the prelim and 12.33 within the semi. Williams was within the outdoors lane with Harrison and Amusen. Camacho-Quinn within the favoured center lanes.

Watching the race, I used to be actually concentrating on the center lanes the place Camacho-Quinn (12.44) simply edged Harrison (12.46); what I had not noticed was that Danielle Williams on the skin lane had come by way of in 12.43 to take her third world championship medal.

She commented afterwards: “I knew it was going to be powerful. I got here out right here realizing I may win, however I must give every part. I nonetheless don’t consider I received in opposition to such a stellar area. I’ve been racing these women all yr, they usually have been kicking me left, proper and centre. However I had such confidence in my coaching and my talents that I by no means stopped believing. My begins have all the time been good. The end is often my drawback, however I spoke to my sister yesterday, and she or he mentioned I would like to ensure to race over all of the hurdles as a result of I wasn’t going flat out by way of all of them. Immediately I used to be decided to take all of it the best way. Once I received the world in 2015, it was unbelievable. However this took a variety of onerous work, a variety of years of toil and accidents, and shedding my confidence and battling to get again to this stage. It’s superior, Jamaica is a proud nation, and we like to win. I like to win”.

By the way, the sister Danielle referred to was Shermaine, who competed within the hurdles within the 2012 and 2016 Olympics.

Danielle Williams was world champion in 2015 however in all probability didn’t get the credit score she deserved. The three Individuals we’re the favourites. Keni Harrison false-started, Daybreak Harper-Nelson fell and defending champion Brianna Rollins couldn’t replicate her Moscow victory. Britain’s Tiffany Porter led over the ultimate hurdle, however a stumble ended her possibilities. However, Danielle Williams efficiently negotiated the beginning, the ten hurdles and the end and was a worthy winner.

Some hurdlers are sprinters others are nice technically; I requested Danielle how she noticed herself.  She replied: “My PB for 100m is 11.2, and I feel I can run the hundred fairly quick, however I additionally know I’m a fairly good technician.  So I’d say I’m a little bit of a mash-up between the 2.  My problem with hurdles is that it’s a rhythm occasion.  It’s probably not a dash, it’s a shuffle, so as a result of I’m sprinter, it’s undoubtedly onerous for me to shuffle.  That’s the problem for me being a sprinter and the technician”.

One enjoyable reality about Danielle is that she has twice set two PRs on the identical day, working 12.58 and 12.57 within the semi-final and remaining World Championships 2015.  In London in 2019, she will be able to 12.41 and 12 32 in the identical afternoon.