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Jamaica's sprint queen Veronica Campbell will do the double at next month's 11th IAAF World Championships in Osaka, Japan.

JULY 23, 2007
 

Veronica Campbell

The 25-year-old Campbell, who won the 100m and 200m in 10.89secs and 22.39secs respectively at the National Championships last month, confirmed her plans with the Sunday Observer in an interview last week. "Absolutely," she said. "My plan is to compete in both the 100m and the 200m at the World Championship in Osaka." Asked whether she had a preference for any of the events, Campbell said, "I'm capable of producing excellent times in both events. As a result, I don't have a preference for either. My aim is to maximise my potential in both sprints, so I treat them as two separate events and prepare for them as such."

Campbell said she has not projected the times she hopes to run in Osaka, but winning will be her priority. "Going to Osaka, my ultimate goal is not how fast I want to run, but rather, it's a matter of getting to the finish line first and then the time will speak for itself," she told the Sunday Observer. The former Vere Technical star who moved on to Barton County Community College and then University of Arkansas, is bidding to win individual gold medals at all levels of IAAF competition after her triumph at the World Youth Championships in 1999 and World Youth Champs in 2000.

The 25-year-old is coming off a serious quad injury suffered early last season, and conceded that there were some niggling "concerns and consciousness of the injury" at the start of this season and for the first few races. However, "until you have run a few (races) it's somewhat difficult to be 100 per cent comfortable and confident".

Campbell said she has been able to cope as coach Brauman (who is currently serving a one-year prison sentence) has "been diligent in sending the workout despite his misfortune."
Additionally, fiance Omar Brown - the Commonwealth Games 200m champion - has been overseeing her workouts as well.

"I consider myself blessed to have Omar to actually watch over my workouts and make suggestions when and where necessary. Coach White at the University of Arkansas has also looked in on my workouts on occasions," she told the Sunday Observer.
In conceding that her usually reliable starts have been inconsistent this season, she said she has been working on it and "there has been improvements".

"I'm inconsistent but that is fixable. I'm confident that by World Championship my start will be where it needs to be," she said. While paying tribute to Jamaica's most successful female Olympian, Merlene Ottey, whom she "absolutely adores" for having set the "standard for people like me to follow", Campbell said Ottey's national records of 10.74secs in the 100m and 21.64 in the 200m, "can be broken, but how soon I don't know." Campbell's personal bests in the respective sprints are 10.85 and 22.05secs.

Campbell, who anchored the national 4x100m team to gold in a Jamaican record of 41.73 seconds at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, was asked what combination she would like to see in Osaka, but declined, saying instead that "It's not my duty to determine the running order... and so I'll leave that up to the appointed coach(es). My duty is to represent my country and I always try to execute that duty to the best of my abilities.

"When asked if it absolutely imperative that Athens teammate Sherone Simpson is fit for Jamaica to win the 4x100m gold in Osaka, Campbell said, "Given the placings at Trials, I'm confident that we'll be able to field a very good team capable of excellent performances. "I have confidence in the girls that placed at the Trials and hope they too are confident in me. We would obviously like to be at full strength, however, we have to work with the core we have and it's a very good core.

"Meanwhile, National 200 metre record holder Usain Bolt was in smashing form at the of Rethymno meet in Greece. Bolt showed that he can also shine in the shortest track race. Faced with a group of elite American sprinters, he managed a personal best of 10.03 to win the first of two heats, well ahead of Leroy Dixon who clocked 10.07, with another 200m star, Wallace Spearmon third with 10.20.

No one produced a faster time than the Jamaican, as J.J. Jonhson won the second heat with a season’s best 10.10, followed by Trinidad’s Marc Burns and Jamaica’s Christopher Williams, both clocked 10.22.

Earlier in the week, World record holder Asafa Powell, who was out for a few weeks with a groin injury, returned with a bang, posting a facile 9.90 at the IAAF Golden League meeting in Rome and declared himself ready to take on the world at the World Championships next month. Any injury concerns about World record holder Asafa Powell, who had to pull out of last week’s race in Paris due to a groin strain, were swiftly dismissed in just 9.90 seconds. It was the Jamaican’s 100m season’s best and a convincing statement that no one should write him off from their Osaka World Championship predictions. Runner-up was Bahamian Derrick Atkins (10.02) and Chuandy Martina of the Netherlands Antilles came third (10.10).

Courtesy of the Jamaica Observer and iaaf.org