-Olympics
Danielle Williams is a world champion once more.The Jamaican sprung a surprise from the inside lane to clinch the women’s 100m hurdles final at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest on Thursday (24 August), eight years after she last claimed world victory in Beijing in 2015.
Even the television cameras did not seem to think Williams had crossed the line first, focusing instead on Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn. But when Williams’s 12.43 seconds was confirmed, 0.01 ahead of Camacho-Quinn, the many Jamaican fans in the stadium erupted along with the 2015 – and now 2023 – world champion who claimed her country’s first gold in Budapest.
Keni Harrison, the former world record holder, crossed the line third in 12.46.”I still don’t believe I won against such a stellar field,” Williams said after the race. “I’ve been racing these ladies all year and they have been kicking me left, right and centre. But I had such confidence in my training and my abilities that I never stopped believing.
“When I won in 2015 it was unbelievable. But this took a lot of hard work, a lot of years of toil and injuries, and losing my confidence and battling to get back to this stage.”It’s awesome, Jamaica is a proud country and we love to win. I love to win.”I came out here knowing I could win,” she added.
For her part, Camacho-Quinn said: “We train against each other, we know what we’re up against. It’s motivation to go out again and grind. It’s been a long season… we ran three days in a row – the women’s 100m, men’s 100m, and men’s 110m hurdles didn’t have that, we did.
“I couldn’t even be mad out there. I was just like, ‘dang, it happens’ – I didn’t want to feel like how I did last year. Last year I felt like I failed, but this is a part of sport – you win some, you lose some. Just being able to get another medal, this is three years in a row (Olympic gold in 2021 and bronze at Worlds in 2022)… I’m very happy for Danielle.”
Featured Image: Barrons