The World Athletics 200m Champion in Athens 1997, Ato Boldon has viewed the Olympics postponement has a blessing for his athlete (Jamaican sprinter) Briana Williams. Although William has to wait another year to make her Olympics debut.
A 18 years old Williams who hold a dual citizenship, she’s currently World age-15 record holder and Jamaica U20 record holder in both 100m and 200m. In 2018 she improved her 200m PB to 22.50s, and went further in 2019 to set another PB in 100m to an impressive 11.02s. She was expecting to make her senior global championship debut in Tokyo this summer, after missing out at the World Athletics Championships in Doha last year.
While Boldon had confidence that she would have made a strong impact this year, he says that the delay gives her an additional year to improve her skills, which he believes will be beneficial in her overall development.
“I thought, based on her 2020 indoor season in which she set personal-best times every time she touched the track, that Briana would have been ready to surprise a lot of people in Tokyo in the summer,”
Boldon told STAR Sports. “But now that she gets to have another year to get stronger, fitter and faster, it can only benefit her. She has improved her 100m time every year for the past three seasons, so waiting another year for the Olympics should be beneficial.”
On postponement, Williams too was not disappointed.”I have been looking forward to make the team to Tokyo 2020 with all the hard work I’ve put in and the daily struggles that all of us athletes have to face,” Williams said. “But these things happen for a reason. We just have to keep safe and take care of ourselves.”
