Danielle Williams
Danielle Williams caused a major shock by landing gold in the 100m hurdles at the Beijing World Championships last month. The 22-year-old Jamaican shares her words of wisdom.
1. Practise makes perfect
“If you don’t practise your art, you won’t have a good technique. If you don’t have a reliable technique, things will fall down under pressure.
“The most important part of becoming a good sprint hurdler is to hurdle, so this year we’ve stepped up our hurdling to three days a week. We constantly do repetitions. I am lucky in that I did hurdling from such a young age and it did come easily to me, but the higher up you go the more important it is to practise hurdling to make those important gains.”
PROGRESSION: Williams (bottom) made it to the 2013 world champs semis and last year finished 4th at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games
2. Desire is a must
“If you don’t have that desire to do your sport, you will not be motivated to go out there and train hard. I am not only an athlete, but a genuine fan of the sport.
“My interest in athletics began when I used to watch my older sister Shermaine [who finished seventh in the 100m hurdles in Beijing] train on an evening. Today I still get up on a morning [in Jamaica] to watch all of the Diamond League events and I even have my own fantasy team.
“But my desire really comes from being very competitive, and this desire has allowed me to train hard and do my best.”
RESILIENCE: In Beijing, Williams survived every drama-filled round to emerge with gold in the final
3. Consistency is key
“Practise brings out consistency and being consistent allows you to perform more reliably under pressure.
“I've worked hard on improving my technique and I feel like these improvements have made a big difference. I had been bringing my lead arm too far across my face and had made some other technical errors. We have foam finders set out on the track to try and improve technique and it has helped with my consistency.”