McLeod wants to measure season to perfection
CANDICE McLeod continued her build-up to the National Championships next month with a convincing win in the women’s 400m at the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association/Sports Development Foundation Jubilee Series meet at the National Stadium last weekend.
McLeod left the field in her wake as she won by roughly 15 metres in a season’s best 50.58s. Tiffany James was second in 52.10 while Ashley Williams was third in 53.40s.
“It was okay; it wasn’t anything spectacular to me,” McLeod said.
“Training has been going on well, so I am expecting good for myself. This isn’t beyond what I expect for myself but I am working on it,” she added.
She said she is not yet ready to open up to full throttle so early in the season.
“Nobody wants to run fast early and not run fast again. My coaches and I will measure how to get along with the races, not to exert too much at the wrong time. We are working on it.”
Since finishing fifth in 49.87s in one of the fastest women’s 400m Olympic finals in history at the Tokyo Games last year, McLeod’s confidence has been boosted significantly.
“I am very confident. I have been confident since I left Tokyo because that is when the work begins.”
The self-confessed “workaholic” says that her conditioning is exactly where it needs to be at the moment.
“My coach can tell you that I am not afraid of working — I show up every day. If I fly today and I come in tonight, I am at the track in the morning. So, I am pretty much confident in my condition and I am coming out here to compete like everybody else.”
McLeod, who has a personal best of 49.51s, says she is not averse to competing at the World Championships and the Commonwealth Games, both to be held in a busy window this summer. But she says the decision will be made by in tandem with her Coach Fitz Coleman.
“I will see what my coach says. I will take it a step at a time but, of course, it’s a championship.”
The World Championships in Oregon, United States, is scheduled to end on July 24 while the Commonwealth Games, to be staged in Birmingham, England is to start July 28.
