Americans and hurdles, by Stuart Weir

At the Herculis Diamond League in Monaco press conference Kendra Harrison was asked what was it about hurdles that made Americans dominate the event. She could not give an answer. In Rio, in the Women’s 100H USA had a clean sweep of the medals (Brianna Rollins, Nia Ali and Kristi Castlin). But the frightening thing for the rest of the world is that Kendra Harrison (world record holder). Dawn Harper-Nelson (2008 and 2012 Olympic medallist) with Sherika Nelvis or Jasmin Stowers etc had they been there instead of the other three, might also have swept the medals.

In Monaco, Kendra Harrison duly won in 12.51 but only after a photo finish and one hundredth of a second separated her from Sharika Nelvis who had won in Lausanne. Harrison said afterwards: “My coach wanted me to run but we weren’t expecting anything crazy I needed to run before the worlds.” She obviously likes Monaco as she is staying there until it is time to go to London.

Kori Carter won the 400H in 53.36 from Shamier Little (also USA). It was her second win in a week, having already triumphed in Hungary. She said of the race: “It was a good race. This whole year I have been struggling with execution and I finally got my stride pattern perfect for a race – 15 strides to the sixth hurdle. So things are working in the right direction going into worlds. I know a sub 53 will be needed for a medal in London and I want to go for it. We actually had that already at US champs. My goal for London is gold – that is clear”.

Carter attributes her improvement, culminating in a 52.95 at the US Trials to book her place for London, to a change of coach, returning to her old college coach Edrick Floreal, who has “been pushing me on every little detail so it has been a really good change for me”. Her plans are now: “Training, training, training and perfecting everything to be ready for London”.

Kori Carter, photo by Stuart Weir

Carter has recently published a book, a training diary which includes Bible verses and inspirational quotes: She explained: “When I did not make the Olympic team last year I was in a dark place and I had the idea to make a training journal. Allyson Felix had talked to me about keeping a training journal and I wanted to include in it something which is very important to me on the track – faith in God. So I fused the two together and out of it came the training journal”.

“The Christian Athlete: Training Journal”, a 12 week workout, nutrition and spiritual logbook is available from Amazon.

All round Kori Carter is a talented and inspirational person.