Posted: March 3, 2006

Athletics: US Sprint Champ On Track For First Solo Global Title

By Bob Ramsak
© 2006 TRACK PROFILE Report, all rights reserved

by Paul Gaines
(c) 2006 IAAF News Service, all rights reserved

Winning her first ever individual world title is US sprinter MeLisa Barber’s focus as she travels Sunday to Moscow for the 11th IAAF World Indoor Athletics Championships (March 10-12).

Twice the Raleigh, North Carolina resident has won gold medals at IAAF World Championships, both times as a member of a victorious US women’s relay team. A year ago she ran the third leg in Helsinki’s Olympic stadium on the 4 x 100m relay team but individual titles have eluded her.

Last weekend Barber stunned a world class field to win the USATF indoor 60m title in a time of 7.06 seconds; a time she had beaten in the semi-finals by one one-hundredth of a second. Among the vanquished was the reigning World 100m champion, Lauryn Williams, who finished second in 7.11 seconds. Clearly Barber will arrive in the Russian capital as a heavy favourite though she is careful not to appear too confident.

“Hopefully I can win the World Championships - have a healthy and a good race,” the 25-year old says softly. “Hopefully, I can win, that’s the main goal. But everyone wants to win. World indoors is very high on the priority list. I mean, every race is important and to be consistent and to be healthy is very essential to me.”

“In the USATF Championships semi-finals I ran 7.05 seconds. I am not going to put a time on anything because I don’t really know. Hopefully, I can go under 7 seconds (in Moscow). That would be great.”

Barber knows these World Championships will be an enormous priority for Russian athletes competing, as they are on home soil. Indeed Mariya Bolikova has the fastest 60m time in the world this year with 7.04 seconds but it is the American who has been the more consistent, three times beating 7.10 seconds and claiming five of the year’s top ten fastest performances. Her victory in Boston last weekend also left a little to be desired when it comes to technical form so there is room for improvement.

“What went right was the last twenty metres of the race,” she admits. “I had not gotten a good start and I just wanted to fix my mistake, where I messed up in the middle of the race, and I did that at the end.”

In addition to winning the gold medal there she emerged as the winner of the 2006 Visa Championships Series though it was extremely close. With 400m runner Sanya Richards leading the points total before the 60m final Barber knew she needed a time of 7.06 seconds to earn enough points to squeeze a victory and claim the $25,000 prize. She admits that she lined up for the race knowing that a slip up could cost her heavily.

“That was on my mind before the race. Definitely,” Barber reveals. “Sanya had taken the lead for the Visa Championships Series and when I ran 7.06 seconds I was very excited and glad I won.”

Three years ago Barber graduated from the University of South Carolina. In her senior year of university she had run the 400m and was a member of the US 4 x 400m gold medal teams at both the 2001 World University Games and the 2003 IAAF World Championships. After joining coach Trevor Graham in Raleigh a year and a half ago, she once again turned her attention to the sprints leaving the impression that she was dropping down in distance.

“That’s the thing, I have always run the 100m and 200m,” she explains, at once derailing the notion that she is a transformed 400m runner. “In high school I was the state champion and national champion in the 100m and 200m. It wasn't until the end of my college career where I ran the 400m and ran 50.8 seconds. So that was a shock. I started off with the 100m and the 200m.”

“Trevor has been a major part of my success. I have trained with him for a year and a half and in that time I have been US outdoor champion and US indoor champion. I wanted to work on my speed and get back to my roots which are the 100m. I know he is a great coach.”

Many sprinters naturally try to use indoor sprint times as predictors of their outdoor 100m performances. Barber who won the 2005 US 100m title but finished a disappointed 5th at the Helsinki World Championships, resists the temptation.

“I don’t really look at it that way. It’s a good start for me. Last year I ended my indoor season with a time of 7.17 seconds. But to end 2006 in 7.05 seconds - well it’s not the end yet - after the World indoors - it gives me a good outlook on the outdoor season and it shows that I am fit.

And hopefully I can pr for my 100m time last year. I am not going to give a conversion because there’s another forty metres in the race.”

“My target is to go under 11 seconds - 10.8 or 10.9 seconds. At major championships I plan to win, that’s my goal - to win! I am not going to give myself specific times. My goal is to go under 11 seconds. I believe I can do that because I have been training very hard this year and I ran 10.87 seconds wind-aided at the US outdoor championships last year.”

Without a major outdoor championship to focus on, the newly crowned US indoor champion will travel the world in search of fast races and new experiences. She mentions the IAAF World Cup of Athletics to be held in Athens September 17-18 as a highlight. In the back of her mind, however, there is another dream that, thanks in part to her Visa Championships Series victory, is getting closer to becoming reality.

“I do hair on the side. I am a hairstylist,” she reveals. “Since I was younger I have wanted to open up a salon. Now it’s a dream that can come true. I don’t know where I will open it. I have moved so many times I am not definitely sure yet but wherever I reside when my career is over is where it will be.”

But for now there is a little business to attend to inside Moscow’s Olympic Arena.

Copyright © Bob Ramsak and Track Profile. All rights reserved TrackProfile.com

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