EUGENE, Oregon — Five-time Olympic gold medallist Elaine Thompson-Herah says she is motivated by her failures and draws inspiration from herself as she knows how great she is and what she is capable of doing.

Thompson-Herah, who will start her quest for her first-ever World Championships gold medal on today’s second day of the 18th edition at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, said she was not chasing the world record of 10.49 seconds set in 1988 by the late American Florence Griffiths-Joyner, but says if the opportunity presents itself she would gladly take it.

“I am just focusing on [winning] the World Championships gold this year, and not times. Even if I win this year with a 10.7 seconds, I will be okay,” she said at a press conference held Friday in Eugene to announce her multi-year contract with Puma sportswear.

“I want the record to come by itself [because] this year I am not really working on that,” she said when asked about getting the world record.

“This year I want it to come by itself but next year there is another World Championships where I hope to get everything together. As I said earlier, this year I had some ‘buck toes’ so next year,” said Thompson-Herah.

“After the championships, if I want [I can] try and target it [the world record] — no problems,” said the fastest woman alive and the second-fastest ever after running a national record 10.54 seconds at this same venue in August last year.

Thompson-Herah, who has a season’s best 10.79 seconds, third in the world behind compatriots Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the defending World champion in the 100m, and national champion Shericka Jackson’s 10.77 seconds, said she was motivated “by the obstacles that I have had to over come”.

“The last five years I have struggled with injuries. I have never had a perfect season where there are no niggles but I used that as motivation as I know other athletes have injuries as well… I don’t like to talk about my injuries; I try to work myself out to get better.

“I use myself as a motivation. I do motivate myself — I know how great I am, I know what I am capable of doing, and once I am healthy I know everything will be fine. I [will] try to work hard each time and work through injuries,” she said.

“I have had failures over the years and have lost championships, those are my motivations.”

Thompson-Herah was quizzed about what it would take to shave the five-hundredths of a second off her best time to get to world record and said it will take a near-perfect race.

“You have to break down each and every phase, even the steps, and then put everything together. I don’t think anyone has ever had a perfect race, I have not had a perfect race yet, but you have to just work on the phases to get to that time,” Thompson-Herah opined.

— Paul Reid