Though snowy conditions in Texas foreshortened her indoor season, 400 metre hurdles prospect Shiann Salmon saw enough to tell her she is fit and ready for outdoors. She feels assured that a fast flat indoor 400 metres run in February was a step in the right direction.

Shiann Salmon2

Her two race indoor season ended on a high note, a personal best time of 52.85 seconds behind fellow hurdler Shamir Little in Fayetteville, Arkansas on February 7. “That was my opener and that’s the fastest I’ve ever run for my first race’, Salmon related joyfully on February 20,  “and we Jamaicans obviously aren’t used to running indoors especially if you don’t attend college or something to train on banked tracks so I’m always having difficult times to run indoors and I think that was reasonable. That was a really good race for me.”

Among those behind her was 2014 World Junior 400 champion Kendall Baisden.

“The biggest difficulty was like cutting over because I actually went in with a race strategy but it got interrupted and I ended up like sitting behind someone who slowed down the pace”, she explained, “but, as I said, I was really comfortable and I’m just really glad that I opened with the fastest time I’ve ever run because I’m just eager to see where I’ll be like couple months from now.”

With heavy snow in Texas, Salmon and her coach Tonja Buford- Bailey, the 1996 Olympic 400 metre hurdles bronze medallist, were not able to prepare for any further forays indoors. So the former Hydel High School star is looking ahead. “I’m not going to rush myself because I know that I’m working hard and you know, you will see results once you’re working. I’m not going to say a specific time but I know I’m in good stead for 2021”, added the 2019 Intercol winner.

She punctuated her high school career with a 2018 World Under 20 Championships silver medal in the hurdles and in 2019, while at the GC Foster College for Physical Education and Sport, she raced into the semi-finals of the World Championships setting a personal best of 55.16 seconds. Now, with Buford-Bailey’s help, the slim 21 year-old is carving away at her technique and race plan. “Sometimes I’m finishing with too much energy, not saying that’s a bad thing but sometimes I’m too relaxed and then I tend to try to run from behind which obviously is not a good strategy”, she analysed, “because persons who are already in front, they won’t be as tired for me to catch them from that far behind. So my coach and I are actually working on a lot of stuff.”

Her targets might also include a bid for a spot on Jamaica’s 4 x 400 metres squad.  “I’ve realized that to be cemented on a 4×4 team you would have had to run a really good time in the 400 or you would have probably had to do it at the Trials so I’ve been putting a bit of thinking into that and I might do it”, said the speedster who contributed a 50.8 second split to Jamaica’s bronze medal 2018 World Under 20 4 x 400 metres quartet.

Next: Alex Morgan Recalls His National Indoor Record Run in The 800!

HL