EUGENE, Oregon — It might not be immediately obvious, but Jamaica’s 400-m runner Candice McLeod insists that she is having a great time at the World Athletics Championships at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.

McLeod — who had a breakout year in 2021 and made it all the way to the Olympic finals in Tokyo, Japan, and won a relay medal — is back in another major final after placing second in her semi-final heat on Wednesday and will accompany the veteran Stephenie Ann McPherson in the final today.

Both were also in the final last year in Tokyo at the Olympic Games where McPherson was fourth and McLeod fifth.

Striding into the mixed zone in very dark wrap-around shades and a face mask, McLeod, who ran a season’s best 50.05 seconds behind Shaunae Miller Uibo of The Bahama, said she was basking in her success.

“I might not react like I am happy, but I am pretty happy,” she said, “I am definitely happy, it was always a dream come true to be here, I am always watching it on TV and feeling good even though I wasn’t here,” she said.

Having been left off the team to the 2019 World Championships in Doha, McLeod said that disappointment has pushed her.

“I feel pretty good [as] in 2019 I was denied a chance to experience the first World Championships so I made sure that I am here for this one, and I came and did my best so far,” she noted.

McLeod went on to explain that it had been her understanding that all eight finalists in 2019 would have been selected and she had placed eigth, but never got the call.

She said she was unable to review her race, “I have not seen the race yet, I really don’t know what I did in the race, but I will go back and look at it and see what I did and make the adjustments [for the final].”

McPherson has been a model of consistency, making the final in every major championships since the World Championships in Moscow in 2013, winning a bronze in Moscow and also at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, this year as well.

McPherson, who was third in her race in 50.56 seconds, said she had experienced dizziness at the start of the race after being bothered by an upset stomach all day.

“I wasn’t feeling well from I woke and had breakfast, kinda stomach issues, but it’s my job and I have to come out here and do the best that I can, and the results that is what I could do today.

“When I got on my marks I was a little dizzy, but it is not something that I think about through the race, I just focused on execution. I felt weak and need to go eat,” she said.

— Paul Reid