KINSTON, Jamaica – Christania Williams is the joint 15th fastest woman in the world this year, but could she be the one to upset the higher ranks in the 100m at the Jamaica Olympic Trials on Friday night?
The answer to that is, why not?
There is an aerial level of respect for the likes of Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Veronica Campbell-Brown when it comes to sprinting in Jamaica and indeed across the globe, but sometimes there is a need to look beyond the season campaigners.
With Fraser-Pryce still hobbling with an ongoing toe injury, which has affected her preparation all season and Campbell-Brown not as explosive as in the past, you can’t help but to think that there could be a changing of the guard in the women’s 100m come Friday night.
World silver medallist Elaine Thompson, who has looked immaculate this season, has been marked as the favourite to win the women’s 100m at the Olympic Trials, but what about Christania Williams?
Williams has never dipped under 11-seconds for the 100m, with her personal best being 11.07 secs, but remember Thompson was in a similar place a year ago until her delightful discovery.
Take note too that Williams is also being drilled by the same sprint coach guru, Stephen Francis, who always gets his athletes ready for the big championships.
Remember the breakthrough by Natasha Morrison, who improved from 11.06 to 10.96 a year ago?
She also made the finals of the women’s 100m at the Beijing IAAF World Championships before running a blistering second leg on the Jamaica winning women’s 4x100m relay team.
And like Thompson and Morrison, Williams also has the quality to be exceptional.
She was particularly impressive when winning her heat in 11.20 seconds, running into a -3.0 m/s headwind on Thursday night and there are signs that this 21-year-old is ready to spoil some predictions come Friday night.
Let’s not rule her out!
