Adversity to fuel Williams to glory - Russell-Love

Gillian Russell-Love, the 1998 Commonwealth 100m hurdles champion, is backing Danielle Williams to do well in Doha, Qatar, at the IAAF World Championships. Russell-Love, a finalist in the world event in 1995, thinks that the difficulties Williams has faced this season have spurred her to higher heights.

In reference to the false-start drama at the National Senior Championships, Russell-Love praised the 2015 World Champion, recounting, “the debacle that happened at the Trials, it’s enough to, I think, derail any athlete, and she has used it to fuel her to heights I don’t even think we thought were possible. I’m not sure she thought she’d be running this fast this year, but she has really, really turned that adversity into something to just really have her focused, fighting hard to be the competitor that she is.”

Russell-Love, World Indoor silver medal winner in 1997, added: “I think she’s going to win the gold medal.”

Williams, 27, has sparkled since Trials, but her races have been less than ideal with headwinds, chilly temperatures, and clipped hurdles affecting her performances. Understandably, Russell-Love reckons that the Jamaican could go even faster.

“Given the fact that she has run 12.32 seconds, with the right competition, I think she could break the world record,” the three-time NCAA 100m hurdles champion said.

World-record holder Kendra Harrison will lead the USA challenge in Doha.

“Keni has had her issues in terms of being mentally tough enough to go ahead and win the race when she’s the favourite,” Russell-Love said of the hurdler who clocked 12.20 seconds to set the world mark in 2016. Harrison missed the podium at the 2015 and 2017 World Championships, and though she was in great form, she faltered at the 2016 Olympic Trials. She set the world record in London two weeks later.

Though Harrison has since taken a 2018 World Indoor Championships success and a classy win at the US Nationals this year, renowned track analyst Ato Boldon agrees with Russell-Love. “You can sugar-coat it all you want: she does not run well in championship settings,” Boldon said, “and Danielle has run all these times, no one has been around, no one’s been even close to her, and it’s tough to run a world record by yourself, so to [break] the world record in that event, or a threatening of the world record in that event, can only happen if the two of them are on and ready.”

Williams and Harrison have split their meetings right down the middle, with two wins each in four encounters. They headline an event that begins with heats today at 9:15 a.m.