Diamond League proves good training ground for Distin
Published:Thursday | August 17, 2023 | 12:09 AM
BUDAPEST, Hungary:
GRATEFUL FOR the invaluable experience at her first Diamond League meet last month, national high jump champion and national record holder Lamara Distin is approaching her second World Athletics Championships with no fear.
Last year, Distin crowned a strong collegiate season with qualifying for her first World Championships, making the final and becoming Commonwealth Games champion.
In year two, the highlight of her season was her final meet before coming to Budapest for the World Championships. Competing in the Diamond League meet in Poland, Distin would come up against some of the same competitors she expects to face.
“It was great! Going against all those amazing ladies, the best in the world, it was amazing! It actually motivated me. Going against people who are very good pushed me to my limit,” Distin told The Gleaner. It was a great experience for me, and I felt like that kind of opened new doors for me.
She would finish sixth in the event, won by Ukraine’s Iryna Gerashechenko, who, along with Olympic silver medallist Nicola Olyslagers of Australia, and World Championship silver medallist Yaroslava Mahuchikh, are the only women to have gone over two metres in 2023.
It is that magical mark that Distin takes aim at as she enters the championships tied for 11th best in the world.
But there is no pressure.
“I’m really close. It is just certain things that need to be fixed, and it will come. I am not rushing anything. It’s God’s timing, and I have faith and hopefully, it will all work out,” Distin said.
With a change in technique and her experience in Poland, Distin feels prepared to take on the challenge of her second World Championships.
“Last year, I used to come from an eight-step, but now it is a 10-step. That is still different, and I am still working on it, so hopefully, it will work how I want it to. I’m just going to go out there, do my very best, try to make the final, and I know I will. And then just see what I can do in the final,” Distin said.