No pressure on Jefferson-Wooden

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — Melissa Jefferson-Wooden is the hottest sprint ticket heading into next month’s World Championships in Tokyo, the American athlete having hit a blistering run of form at just the right time.

The 24-year-old became the first woman since 2003 to win the 100-200m double at the US trials earlier this month.

Her personal best of 10.65 seconds in the 100m, making her the joint-fifth-fastest woman in history, is the world lead, meaning she’ll head to the Japanese capital with a target on her back having also won all eight of her races in the blue riband event this year.

“I don’t see it that way. I don’t feel the pressure of being top favorite,” Jefferson-Wooden said ahead of Friday’s Diamond League meet in Brussels.

“Even though I do have the fastest times, I don’t have the accolades — I’m ‘only’ the Paris bronze medallist. I don’t have an Olympic or world title to defend. That’s a lot more pressure.”

Jefferson-Wooden is slightly unusual in that she did not attend a top college, the Georgetown, South Carolina, native instead attending the little-known Coastal Carolina University.

That did not prevent her from sealing prestigious NCAA titles in the 100m outdoors and 60m indoors.

“I actually grew up in a small town as well, so being the underdog, or facing adversity and not having access to all the other resources that bigger schools and other cities may have, it’s nothing that’s new to me,” she said.

“It’s who I am. It’s what drives me to be the person that I am right now.”

“I not only cherish and admire the journey that I’ve taken, but I’m absolutely in love with it because... no matter what may come my way, whatever anybody may have to say, I’m built for it.”

Jefferson-Wooden will be up against Jamaican sprint legend Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in Brussels.

“I just ran into her in the hotel restaurant and she congratulated me on all my fast times this year,” she said of the 38-year-old Jamaican, who has three Olympic and 10 world golds to her name.

“I thought that was really cool. ‘I just want to be like you,’ I told her. She’s been running those times for years.”

Jefferson-Wooden added: “It’s crazy how life comes full circle. Three years ago the Silesia Diamond League meet was my first as a professional athlete.”