Coach Graham eyes big year for Williams

When Danielle Williams placed first in Karlsruhe, Germany, in a close 60 metres hurdles race on January 28, the effort got the nod from her coach, fellow Jamaican Lennox Graham. The time was a lifetime best of 7.84 seconds, and Graham was grateful. As she points to the World Indoor Championships next month, he says a key to her good form is that she is healthy.

Williams also did a season’s best of 7.89 seconds in the Karlsruhe heats. “So she is in good shape. Thank God, she’s not hurt and hasn’t been hurt this season. Most of her seasons, she had a little niggle around December-ish, late fall, but this year she’s healthy,” he stated.

Now she is level with Gillian Russell-Love for third on the all-time Jamaican performance list and just 0.03 of a second short of the world leader, 7.81 seconds by reigning World Indoor champion Kendra Harrison.

Williams has also lowered her flat 60 metres best this season – to 7.29 seconds.

They are working to steer her clear of injury. “She’s been very disciplined this year in just doing everything that she’s been asked to do; and also on the recovery side, she’s really doing well on the recovery side. So the little niggles are less and we’re staying proactive. So we’re praying that that will keep her healthy, because if she’s healthy, then she will run fast,” Graham noted.

Equally, he is trying to smooth out the technique employed by the 2015 World 100m hurdles champion. “She has speed and she depends on the speed a lot, but I kind of want her to embrace more the rhythm which she had in 2019,” he said, with reference to a season when she lowered the Jamaican record to 12.32 seconds and won bronze at the World Championships.

The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the rhythm in 2020, restricting practice and competition. With leg troubles in 2021 behind her, she is once again polishing her technique. “We’re really trying to get her to focus on the mechanics and not depend so much on her speed. You get to accelerate to the hurdles in eight steps, and you get to run again off the last hurdle, but between that, it’s a rhythm that you can embrace. And if she embraces that, then she’ll find out that she can go faster,” he stressed.

Williams will hurdle again on Sunday at the New Balance Grand Prix in New York, but her eye is on the World Indoor Championships, which are set for Belgrade, Serbia, in March. “We definitely want to go to World Indoors. Of course, like the rest of the world, we’re watching this whole Crimea-Russia situation because it’s right there next door, so you kind of stay tuned to that and pray that the games will be on. If it’s on, and we can qualify for it, then yes, we want to go,” he affirmed.