Coach hopes 400m hurdler Salmon displays improvement in technique
Published:Wednesday | July 20, 2022 | 12:05 AMDaniel Wheeler/Staff Reporter
EUGENE, Oregon
American Tonja Buford-Bailey has coached 400 metres hurdler Shiann Salmon for the past past three years and she is pleased with how the athlete's mentality has changed in the event as well as her maturity. She hopes this will lead to great rewards at the 2022 World Athletics Championships.
Salmon, 23, will open her campaign in the women's 400m hurdles first round tonight starting at 7:15 Jamaica time.
Salmon placed second at the national championships last month in a personal best time of 53.82 seconds. Buford-Bailey, a 51-year-old former 400m hurdler, says that the main goal after last year's campaign was to continue her education in the discipline at the elite level.
"A lot of it started with a mindset of really understanding the sport, understanding the event and improving on a lot of off-the-track things and then transition to just being able to be a lot more focused and come in really wanting to win," Buford-Bailey said.
Salmon made it to the semi-finals of the 2019 championships in Doha, her first senior championships. An World Under-20 Championships silver medalist, Buford-Bailey said that Salmon's gradual progress in her technique has been encouraging
"She has matured a lot. She is getting older but then at the same time, it is an event where it is strategic. So it took some time for her to even understand the strategic nuances of the event and understanding stride pattern and stride rhythm," said Bailey, a 1995 World Championships silver medalist and 1996 Olympics bronze medalist in the event.
It has been a partnership that has benefited Salmon in more ways than one.
"She's is my mentor and she's like a mother figure to me. Our relationship extends beyond track and field and I think that helps me to positively focus my mind and we can talk about things. So if I feel like something is not going right in practice she is always there to talk me through it," Salmon said "So it's been good having her as my coach."
Buford-Bailey is setting Salmon's targets high for a debut senior championship final appearance despite a stacked field but also ensuring that she displays the results of the work being done.
"She wants to run a personal best. I don't care about that. I want her to run for a medal. So that's my goal no matter who is in the race. But again at the same time perfecting the race. She's never run in this stadium before. And it's just getting parts in the race that we have been working on all year and try to get it as good as possible in the event," Buford-Bailey said.