National title a dream come true for Russell
SOME girls dream of diamonds, some dream of pearls, but Janieve Russell dreams of national track and field titles.
And dreams do come true, at least for her after she won the women’s 400m hurdles Friday night at the JAAA National Senior Trials at the National Stadium holding off a challenge from Shevon Stoddart to win her first senior national title, running 55.10 seconds.
“I feel pretty good, it’s a major accomplishment,” said the 21-year-old former Holmwood Technical athlete. “It’s a girl’s dream to be national senior champion and I am glad I could do that today.”
Russell won the title in the absence of many-time champion Kaliese Spencer, who opted to run the 400m after getting a bye to the World Championships after winning the IAAF Diamond League last year.
That was of little consequence for Russell, who won the bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games last year. “I wanted to do it, I expected to do it and I trained really hard and I am glad that I could display this in front of my country and I am really excited about the performance.”
Her time was well off her best of 54.75 seconds set a year ago and the IAAF World Junior Championships gold medallist from 2012 in Barcelona, Spain, said, “I am a bit disappointed about the time, but I should not be because I only got one week of training, so I am glad that I could execute, not as well as my coaches wanted but I am also injury free.”
Having tasted success at both the World Junior and Commonwealth Games level, Russell has set her sights on making it to the final of the event in China in August and to the podium.
— Paul Reid
