SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth — Petersfield High School’s Alexis James is on a mission that should see her standing on the top step of the medal podium after the Girls’ Class One 100m hurdles at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Championships in April.

It has been an interesting 2021 for the first-year Class 1 athlete who will turn 18 on the final day of Champs in April — failing to qualify for the Class 2 100m hurdles final for the ISSA Champs, finishing 11th- best after the prelims, winning at the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) Junior Trials, and then winning her first international gold medal, the Under 18 NACAC title, later in 2021 in Costa Rica.

“I am much better this year,” she said matter of factly, “I am training better and the results are showing that,” she said.

Despite battling what she says were “multiple injuries” James took a big step towards her goals after breaking the County of Cornwall Athletics Association (COCAA) Class One 100m record, running 13.91 seconds on the grass at the St Elizabeth Technical Sports Complex in Santa Cruz.

She also obliged as the favourite in the 100m, even though she was less than impressed with her 11.93-second clocking, running the race basically unchallenged.

“I am feeling great,” she told the Jamaica Observer on Saturday before lending her talents to the Petersfield High Class One 4×100 and 4x400m Open relays teams.

She was not surprised, she said, to break the record in the hurdles race after running 13.58 seconds (-1.2m/s) to win the Under 18 title at the JAAA Trials, and then running 13.31 seconds at the NACAC championships.

With a long season ahead of her James took her double on Saturday in stride. “The hurdles record was nice,” she told the Observer, “but I wanted to run faster,” she admitted. Frowning when her time for the 100m was announced she declared, “I am not satisfied with the time. Thought I would have gone faster,” she said.

When asked to share her expectations for the ISSA Champs she said, “I am expecting to go home with a gold medal.” And for the 100m, she said “A personal best would be nice.”

She will face defending champion Oneka Wilson of Hydel High in the hurdles event and will have to run faster than 11.58 seconds to lower her best 100m time ever.

As for her injuries, James said her coaches have put more rest time in her routine and that the added recovery time allows her to train harder when she gets to the training grounds.

— Paul Reid