NEW YORK, Jan 16 - World 100-meters champion Lauryn Williams wants to have a dominating season in 2006, starting with a five-meet indoor campaign she hopes will pay off with victory at the World Indoor Championships in March.
Williams skipped the 2005 indoor campaign to recover following the Athens Olympics, but this year will race at Boston, the Millrose Games here, the Tyson Invitational and the US finals, the qualifying meet for the worlds at Moscow.
My goal this year for the whole season is dominance,'' Williams said Monday. It’s a great thing to be the world champion.
Being the world champion is the same thing as being the Olympic champion. To win the world championship felt just a little bit better than winning the silver medal. To be dominant this year would be more important. Being the world champion was a really good year but I think it would have been better for me to have finished the season and won more races.’’
To that end, Williams is working on the ends of her races.
The finish of my race is very important,'' she said. For the most part in the 100m, I’m leading at 60. Hopefully that will lead to success at 60 meters indoors.
If it was up to me I'd say I was a 60-meter runner and I run the 100 for fun. Unfortunately, the 100 is the premiere event, so it doesn't work like that.'' Confidence is the key to winning at 60m, Williams said, adding that she is not yet 100 percent confident in her indoor form. My confidence is 85 percent right now,’’ she said. It definitely makes or breaks you in the 60. It's pretty much a done deal if you mess up the start.'' Jamaica's Veronica Campbell, world 100m runner-up to Williams and a triple Olympic medalist, will be Williams' main foe in the 60m dash here on February 3 at the Millrose Games. It’s going to be an exciting race,’’ Williams said. I know she's training hard. That's the sort of person she is.'' Campbell will race in Scotland later this month, then face Williams at the Millrose and Tyson meet in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Lauryn is a great competitor,’’ Campbell said. This is going to be a very fun race. It should be a really good competition. I have a lot of respect for Lauryn. A true champion always needs somebody there to push them. It should be a really great race. I know a lot of people are looking forward to it.’’