Veteran Jamaican distance runner Natoya Goule says that she will be taking a much smarter approach to her racing this season as she aims to secure a podium finish at this year’s World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

Goule, 32, finished a disappointing fifth in the 800 metres final at last year’s World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, in 1:57.90 seconds. The race was won by the American Athing Mu in 1:56.30.

Running from lane two in the final in Eugene last year, the vastly experienced Guole entered the final lap of the race at the back of the field before running on the final two hundred metres to finish fifth in the event.

She said that has learnt a lot over the years from competing on the world stage and will be taking a different approach to her running style this year as she seeks to win her first World Championships medal.

“I think that I have to be patient and be more aggressive because at the World Championships last year, I knew that I had it in me, but I wasn’t aggressive on the first lap and so I need to be there from the get go,” Goule told the Jamaica Observer.

“I am looking forward to competing throughout this year and I am going to take it one step at a time because you don’t know what to expect because you just have to go out there and race and just continue to train hard until then,” she said.

Goule, who is the national record holder in the event with a time of 1:56.15 minutes, was a fourth-place finisher in the event at last year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England. The former Manchester High School standout won a bronze medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games before finishing sixth and eight, respectively, at the 2019 World Championships Doha, Qatar, and 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

Goule underlined that her preparations have not been very smooth so far this year because she has been hampered by a foot injury, which has caused her to miss some time from training this season. However, she returned to the track at last weekend’s Penn Relays in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she finished second in the 600m event.

“I am feeling extremely good knowing that this is my second race of the season because it was a hard start of the year so I am feeling happy. My preparations have been going good, but I am a little bit behind because of a stress fracture that I suffered earlier in the year, but I am really excited about my time in this 600m race,” said Goule.

“This [injury] will not affect me going forward because I just completed this race in 1:24.22 and this is good even though it is not my PR [personal best] time but I will take it.

“I didn’t really stop training because of the injury, but I wasn’t able to do my track workout and my long runs. I just had to swim and bike but I am over it mentally now and I am just looking forward to competing this season,” Goule pointed out.