‘ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE’
Pryce relaxed about women’s 400m medal chances heading into Olympic Games debut
PARIS, France — Jamaica’s rising women’s quarter-miler and national 400m record holder Nickisha Pryce is optimistic she can produce another record-breaking performance when she competes at the Paris Olympic Games.
The 23-year-old Pryce, who recently joined the professional ranks after graduating from University of Arkansas, has been in outstanding form this season, breaking the national 400m record twice.
Competing in her first Diamond League as a professional, Pryce set a national record and world-leading time of 48.57 seconds to win the 400m in London, England, on Saturday.
Her remarkable run shattered her own national record of 48.89, previously set at the NCAA National Division 1 Championships in June. Following these outstanding performances this season Pryce is highly favoured to medal in Paris.
She told the Jamaica Observer that she is not getting too carried away with her recent success, being very focused instead on just getting into the final and then taking it from there.
“I am feeling good. I am just trying to be focused and be healthy,” she noted.
“My aim right now is just to make the final — nothing too crazy — but just to make the final.
“Me and my coach have been working on that [national record] the entire season, and knowing that I am running fast right now, I am grateful,” Pryce added.
No Jamaican woman has ever won a gold medal in the one-lap event at the Olympic Games, but based on Pryce’s performances this season she could very well break that drought for the country in the event which is scheduled to begin on August 5. Lorraine Fenton-Graham won bronze in the women’s 400m in Sydney, Australia, in 2000; Novlene Williams-Mills took home bronze at the 2008 Beijing Games; and Shericka Jackson also won a bronze medal in the event at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Games.
The women’s 400m final is set for August 9.
Pryce pointed out that she is very delighted to be participating in her first Olympic Games and is not putting herself under any undue pressure to run fast times in Paris.
“I am not going to put a time on myself because my aim is just to make the final — and when I make the final then anything is possible.
“There is no pressure on me going into the Olympics because I am just doing me. I am not focusing on anyone else but myself; [I am focusing] on executing a proper race throughout the rounds of my event,” she said.
