KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaican sprinter Jodean Williams believes that her strong faith in God combined with hard work and perseverance will earn her a spot on Jamaica’s team for this year’s Olympic Games in Paris.

Williams, 30, who reached the semi-finals at the 2017 World Championships in London, England, in the 200m event, is aiming to represent Jamaica at the Olympics for the first time in her career. The soft-spoken sprinter, coached by Maurice Wilson at SprinTec, after leaving the Racers track club at the end of last season, has shown good form so far this year.

She achieved a significant victory in the final of the women’s 100m, clocking 11.29 seconds, at the Velocity Fest 30 at Jamaica College two weeks ago, defeating competitors such as Natasha Morrison, her training partner Remona Burchell and reigning world Under-20 100m champion Tina Clayton in the event.

“I am looking forward to the rest of the season, it has been going great. I have my goals set, and I am just continuing on my journey towards making the Jamaica Olympic team,” said Williams.”All the females, we are working towards our goals and all of us are training and putting in the work, so it is on the day that counts,” she said.

“We can’t tell until the day, as anything can happen. I have always told myself that you just have to go out there, do your best, keep pushing, have faith, put Jesus at the centre of everything you are doing, and keep believing,” Williams asserted.

She holds personal best times of 11.27 in the 100m and 22.88 in the 200m. Williams highlighted that one of her personal goals this year is to improve on her personal best times in both events and therefore, she has been working very hard to meet those targets.

Jamaican sprinter Jodean Williams

“Of course, I do have certain times that I am targeting because you need to put a time on paper. I have told myself that you need to keep working, and time will come,” she said. Williams explained that her decision to switch from the Racers track club to SprinTech at the end of last season was very personal, and she hopes it will result in her achieving great things this season.

“For me, adaptation is not a problem because I enjoy what I do and love what I do. I always just keep working hard,” she said. “I am a very self-driven person and very motivated, so anywhere I go, I just always try to put in the work. I have never left out the person that I serve, which is my Jesus, because I have always put him at the centre and let him lead me,” Williams added.

“Racers is a very lovely club, and I have nice friends over there, and the coaches are really great. But it was just a personal thing for me to move on this season.”

Williams represented Jamaica in the women’s 4x100m at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, where they finished second in 44.11. The other members of the Jamaican team were Burchell, Yanique Dayle, and Shockoria Wallace. The race was won by Spain in 43.97.

Williams and Dayle are also set to represent Jamaica in the women’s 4x100m relay at the World Relays Championships in The Bahamas this weekend. The other members of this team are Alana Reid, Kemba Nelson, Remona Burchell, Mickaell Moodie, and Natasha Morrison.