GOLDEN GIRL SETS SIGHTS ON FLO-JO

Melissa Jefferson-Wooden is the world 100-meters champion and fourth-fastest woman in history after her incredible 10.61 second run in last month's World Athletics Championships final in Tokyo, but she is already looking ahead and thinks the 10.5 benchmark — and beyond — is possible.

Florence Griffith-Joyner's much-questioned 10.49 from 1988 has been untouchable for decades, though Jamaican Elaine Thompson-Herah edged closer with her 10.54 in 2021.

Jefferson-Wooden, still only 24 and very much on an upward curve, thinks she is capable of reaching that level.

"You've certainly got no regrets after running 10.61," she said.

"But, I definitely do think (the world record) is a possibility. Crazily enough, I thought (in Tokyo) I had the potential to run 10.5, which is why I say that about the record.

"I was happy with every aspect of that race, but still wish I had been able to separate a little sooner. And then there's no telling what (time) I could have run.

"I'm grateful for what I did, but I'm still hungry for much more, because I know that it's there."

Jefferson-Wooden went into the world championships final on a remarkable run of sub-11 second races — and wins — and said at the time that she knew if she was able to "focus on the process", then it could, and should, be her night.

Having won bronze at last year's Olympics she was used to the pressure and noise around a big final and, true to plan, she delivered a beautifully smooth display to finish ahead of Jamaican Tina Clayton (10.76) and Olympic champion Julien Alfred (10.84).

"I wanted to just keep the main thing the main thing, and that is to focus on my execution, because that's what gets you the results you want," she said after the race.

"My coach has been telling me these last couple of weeks to just be myself, don't try to overdo it."

'Stop whining'

Jefferson-Wooden has come a long way from her first major final, when she finished last at the Eugene 2022 worlds and, with something akin to impostor syndrome, came away delighted just to have lined up alongside some of her idols after a breakthrough year.

"That was a moment that definitely defined me, and then my drive ever since then has been to shoot for the stars," she said.

A bronze and a sprint relay gold at the Paris Olympics helped validate that self-belief.

"I had overcome so much to get to that Olympic final that the bronze, in my eyes, was a gold medal, because I had started the year with a lingering physical issue," she said.

"So, coming into this year, it was like, 'OK, how do you move on from a year where you were so happy with how you did?'

"I was proud of myself, but I also knew I could have been better, so, that's how I approached this year."

The approach worked — and then some.

Jefferson-Wooden also became the first American winner of the 200m since Allyson Felix in 2009, and the first American woman to legally complete the sprint double after Kelli White was stripped of both golds she won in 2003 for doping.

Her coaches, however, needed convincing when she told them at the start of the year she wanted to take the event seriously.

"They looked at me and it was like: 'wait a minute, did y'all hear what she said?' But I told them I wanted to be a contender.

"I didn't like to really focus on the extra 100 meters just because it hurts, but eventually, I said to myself: 'if you stop whining and complaining, you can actually be really good at this.'"

Turns out, she was right.

Reuters