Sally to focus on pet event Jim Morton
October 25, 2010 - 5:39PM
AAP
Sally Pearson will delay a confident tilt at the Australian 100m record to solely focus on the 100m hurdles for world championship and Olympic glory in the next two years.
Australia’s athletics golden girl, Pearson on Monday announced she would take a hard-nosed approach to the next phase of her career following the ups and downs of a memorable Delhi Games campaign.
The Gold Coast hurdler believes she is poised to break Melinda Gainsford-Taylor’s long-standing national 100m flat record but doesn’t want to jeopardise her best chances of winning a world title or Olympic gold medal in her pet event.
Advertisement: Story continues below “I’m going to probably leave the 100 and 200 out of my program for the world championships next year (in Korea) and for the London Olympics simply because it’s going to be a tough two years coming up,” Pearson said.
"I’m actually a bit scared about it because everyone is going to be coming out - the world champion (Jamaican, Brigitte Foster-Hylton), the world silver medallist (Canada’s Priscilla Lopes-Schliep) and bronze medallist (Jamaican, Delloreen Ennis-London).
"Everyone in the world is going to be there and I’m going to have to stay really focussed and strong and determined throughout the whole two years because it’s going to be tough.
“They’re going to be the two biggest years of my athletics career.”
Pearson, who turned 24 last month, is expected to be at or close to her peak at Daegu for the world titles next August and at the 2012 London Games.
The 2008 Olympic silver-medallist returned home just last Thursday after a Thailand holiday with family and friends following the Commonwealth Games.
Despite the devastation of being stripped of gold in the 100m flat in controversial circumstances, before bouncing back to win the 100m hurdles, Pearson said she wouldn’t change a thing from her Delhi experience.
“Those three days no one understands how tough that was for me to get through it,” she said. “I don’t usually say I’m proud of myself but I am for that week - how I handled everything.”
But she did regret the fact the episode prevented her from eclipsing Gainsford-Taylor’s mark of 11.12 seconds, set at altitude in Italy in 1994.
“It was a bit disappointing the false start and all the drama that happened before the race, because I was in Australian record form,” said Pearson, whose personal best is 11.14, recorded three years ago in Osaka.
“I could have run 11.1 or 11.0 easily in that race that night. It didn’t happen that night but eventually it will.”
Pearson will restart training in the next three weeks and foreshadowed running a couple of low-key Gold Coast meets before racing on the Australian grand prix circuit in the new year.
AAP