Simoya Campbell is not satisfied, having already made the qualifying time for the women’s 800m at this year’s Rio Olympic Games, and knows she must work harder at her race if she is to do more than show up at the start line for her first Olympics.

Campbell is one of three Jamaican women who have the qualifying standard of 2 minutes 01.50 seconds, along with national champion Natoya Goule and two-time Olympian Kenia Sinclair, but says she is aiming to run faster than her personal best of 1 minute 59.26 seconds set last year.

“I am not looking at the time I have, I need to go lower than that. I know that I have the qualifying time, but need to work harder,” she said, adding that she was “on pace to run fast at trials, even under my PB”.

The 22-year-old Campbell ran a season’s-best 2 minutes 02.73 seconds for fourth place in the 800m at the JN Racers Grand Prix recently and told the Jamaica Observer she was over the injuries that slowed her early season preparations and that she was satisfied with the time.

“Tonight I felt better,” she said. “This is the first time I was running so fast in my second 800m of the year and I am looking forward to the next 800m race.”

Campbell, who was back on the track a day later, running a personal best 53.57 seconds in the 400m at a JAAA All-comers meet at the National Stadium, bolstered her point that she has been doing better in training.

On the day of the Grand Prix she had told the Observer: “I am better; I have been training 100 per cent better than before,” after being sidelined with an injury in the early season.

Compared to her first 800m, where she ran 2 minutes 06 seconds after running 57 seconds for the first lap, she said the recent run showed a lot of progression.

“This says a lot for the Olympic Trials,” she said, but hastened to add there were things she can work on. “My third 200m was slow but I can work on that in training. I have to go back to training and fix what I need so I can run faster.”