By Mitch Phillips
TOKYO (Reuters) -Melissa Jefferson-Wooden woke up as the world 100 metres champion and fourth-fastest woman in history after her incredible 10.61 second run in Sunday’s final, but she is already looking ahead and thinks 10.5 and beyond is possible.
Florence Griffith-Joyner’s much-questioned 10.49 from 1988 has been untouchable for decades, though Jamaican Elaine Thompson-Herah edged closer with her 10.54 in 2021.
Jefferson-Wooden, still only 24 and very much on an upward curve, thinks she is capable of reaching that level.
“You’ve certainly got no regrets after running 10.61,” she told Reuters in an interview at Nike’s Tokyo headquarters on Monday.
“But I definitely do think (the world record) is a possibility. Crazily enough, I thought yesterday I had the potential to run 10.5, which is why I say that about the record.
“I was happy with every aspect of the race but still wish I had been able to separate a little sooner. And then there’s no telling what I could have run. I’m grateful for what I did but I’m still hungry for much more because I know that it’s there.”
Jefferson-Wooden came into the world championships on a remarkable run of sub-11 second races – and wins – and said she knew if she was able to “focus on the process” then it could and should be her night.
Having won bronze at last year’s Olympics she was used to the pressure and noise around a big final and, true to plan, she delivered a beautifully smooth display to finish ahead of Jamaican Tina Clayton (10.76) and Olympic champion Julien Alfred (10.84).
“I wanted to just keep the main thing the main thing, and that is to focus on my execution because that’s what gets you the results you want,” she said.
“My coach has been telling me these last couple of weeks to just be yourself, don’t try to overdo it.”
‘STOP WHINING’
Jefferson-Wooden has come a long way from her first major final when she finished last at the Eugene 2022 worlds and, with something akin to impostor syndrome, came away delighted just to have lined up alongside some of her idols after a breakthrough year.
“That was a moment that definitely defined me, and then my drive ever since then has been shooting for the stars,” she said.
A bronze and a sprint relay gold at the Paris Olympics helped validate that self-belief.
“I had overcome so much to get to that Olympic final that the bronze in my eyes was a gold medal because I had started the year with a lingering physical issue,” she said.
“So coming into this year, it was like, ‘okay, how do you move on from a year where you were so happy with how you did?’
“I was proud of myself but I also knew I could have been better and so that’s how I approached this year.”
Now Jefferson-Wooden is bidding to become the first American winner of the 200m since Allyson Felix in 2009, and the first American woman to legally complete the sprint double after Kelli White was stripped of both golds she won in 2003 for doping.
Her coaches, however, needed convincing when she told them at the start of the year she wanted to take the event seriously.
“They looked at me and it was like, ‘wait a minute, did y’all hear what she said?’ But I told them I wanted to be a contender.
“I didn’t like to really focus on the extra 100 metres just because hurts, but eventually I said to myself, ‘if you stop whining and complaining, you can actually be really good at this.”
Turns out, she is really good at it.
And with Alfred now out injured, Jefferson-Wooden’s 21.84 makes her the fastest woman in the field this year.
“I’m actually very excited to go out in the 200 and just to see what I have in the tank,” she said. “I’m the 100m world champion but in the 200 it’s 0-0 and I start again.”
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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