WITH her first competitive race of the new track and field season out of the way, Veronica Campbell Brown is looking forward to the rest of the season.

The Atlanta-based Jamaican was adjudged second behind American Lisa Barber after both clocked 7.24 seconds in the Women's 60m race at the 103rd Millrose Games in New York last Friday.

In her on-line diary in the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) website published yesterday, the Olympic and IAAF World champion said the race, her first indoors race in four years, allowed her to see how well her training programme had been going.

"I was glad to get this race 'under my belt' as it was necessary to see how I put in place the things that I am working on," she said.

"Training is one thing; however, racing is the real thing. In competitions, you experience things that you just cannot simulate in practice."

Campbell Brown had plans to mix some leisure with the competition, but the brutally cold weather in the American north-east last weekend forced her to cancel those plans.

"It was so cold in New York, any idea I had of shopping there was quickly dashed when I felt the brutal winds."

Track and field wasn't the only thing on her mind, she wrote, as the devastation from the earthquake in Haiti also grabbed her attention.

"The past month also forced everyone's attention to turn to Haiti, a nation that suffered badly from an earthquake.

"This was particularly startling for me as Haiti is geographically quite close to Jamaica."

After a hectic travel schedule in December and January, which included several trips to Jamaica, of which attending the RJR Sports Foundation's Sports Man and Sports Woman of the Year ceremony was one, Campbell Brown says, "Things have settled down a bit for me now as there has been a sort of lull in travelling, engagements and bad weather."

She added, "The weather has been quite a challenge as it has forced a lot of improvised training."

Campbell Brown was also a keynote speaker at the Titans Track Club's Breakfast of Champions event in Atlanta.

Titans is the youth club of her new coach Anthony Carpenter and she says she "spoke from excerpts from my

book, A Better You - Inspirations for Life's Journey.

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