Jodie Williams bubbles with effervescence, and understandably so.
Fresh from lowering her personal best over 200 metres to 22.76 seconds, she is taking steps towards what the 20-year-old hopes will be a medal tilt at the Commonwealth Games. These are also strides away from the abyss which consumes so many adolescent talents who shine brightly and show so much promise, only to fade.
Four years ago, the potential for the sprinter from Welwyn Garden City seemed limitless, following a streak of 151 successive wins that encompassed two European junior titles and a rise to the top of the UK senior rankings. A place in the world indoor final was secured in the spring of 2012. Yet having found her way onto posters and promotions hyping up the Olympics, a hamstring tweak put the Games beyond her grasp. What followed seemed just one more case study in asking too much, too soon.
"The last couple of years have been a real struggle for me," she reveals. "Going from being a really promising junior and then getting injured and having to sit on the sidelines was very tough. Battling with injury after injury was just really frustrating so I'm really pleased with how the season's gone so far. It's just about slowly building up my confidence again. Physically I'm there. I've just got to let my mind catch up."
Physically, she had healed. Her body had matured. "But my mind was too scared to run because I was frightened of the same injury happening again," she admits. Sprinting is a confidence trick and Williams' magic, it seemed, had disappeared. "It's never a nice feeling," she adds, "when you know your 17-year-old self would have beaten you in a race but it was all about being patient. Patience is not my forte but I'm getting there slowly."
She has headed to the Bahamas where the world relay championships begin tomorrow with renewed confidence. The GB&NI team also features Glasgow contenders Asha Philip and Anyika Onuora, part of a wave of sprint talent that also includes the absent Dina Asher-Smith.
When Hampden's Games arrive, the group expects to make the same waves as the UK's leading men.
"I think we're slowly beginning to prove that we can be among the top female as well as male sprinters in the world," Williams asserts. "If we all progress together and we have a bit of rivalry on the track, it could produce some great times."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article