Glasgow January 26th 2008

"Everything depends upon execution; having just a vision is no solution."
– Stephen Sondheim





I think the quote above is the best way to describe my race yesterday.

I was back up in Glasgow for my first indoor meet of the season. The first race of a new season is always special. Practice up until this point has merely been a series of potential performance indicators. A race tells the complete story. I finished second which is not bad but not the position I wanted to finish.

My new coach Brooks Johnson was also in Glasgow along with one of my training partners David Oliver (winner of the 60m Hurdles). In our pre race discussion Brooks had given us cues for the race. A cue is a particular thing to focus on during the race. Yesterday I did not achieve the cue which resulted in my not winning the race. Pretty simple really when I say it out loud. (But something that definitely will be worked on in my next race)

Positives from the race

1. I owned my start which is something I have been working really hard on since I changed my lead leg in November. (Lead leg is the leg that you use to push off the blocks). Yesterday in competition it felt very natural.
2. I was strong coming off the top bend which enabled me to hold onto second place.

Negatives from the race

1. I did not achieve my cue.
2. My arms were flapping over the last 5m.


Result:
200 METRES Women OFFICIAL RESULTS



1 USA Shareese WOODS 23.76 0.251 SB 5

2 GBR Joice MADUAKA 24.04 0.256 SB 4

3 COM Aleen BAILEY JAM 24.16 0.208 SB 3

4 SWE Moa HJELMER 24.50 0.231 PB 2

5 GER Cathleen TSCHIRCH 24.60 0.268 SB 1

Overall my 4 points helped the GBR team in winnnig the match overall. We beat the USA by 1 point.

Overall standings:

1. Great Britain & Northern Ireland, 54 points

=2. United States of America, 53 points

=2. Germany, 53 points

4. Commonwealth select, 46 points

5. Sweden, 43 points