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| Monique Williams Photo: Athletics New Zealand |
Monique Williams further improved on her New Zealand 200m record in finishing third in her semi-final in 22.90s a six hundredths of a second improvement on her time in the heats yesterday. With just the first two and the two other fastest times from the three semi-finals going through to the final, Williams needed to run 22.64s to claim one of the two other times.
Williams achieved a top 16 ranking finishing 12th in the competition.
Muna Lee of USA won Williams semi-final in 22.30s. Williams broke on the first attempt to get the field underway, but had no problem with the second start. The 23 year old was over the moon coming off the track at the near capacity Olympic Stadium in Berlin.
"It's pretty cool to call yourself 12th in the world," said Williams with a smile a mile wide.
"I think I was a bit eager to get away, it was a split second, still a false start though. It was definitely nerves that made me do that. "I had three pretty fast people on the inside of me so I knew if I tried to get away as fast as I could I'd be in a good position," said a pretty happy Williams.
"I think my best bit was probably from 150 to 100, because I felt they caught up and I tried to catch the Russian girl on the outside of me once I did that I knew I'd be in quite a good position and I came home strongly which is good." It was mixed emotions for Williams as she crossed the finish line. "At the end I was like Oh, I mean I just missed out on the final, but then I was just like hold on a minute I've achieved if not more than my goal of wanting to be top 16, and I'm 12. I haven't any words to explain it, I'm just really over the moon."
Williams said that it is the first time in her career where she had concentrated solely on one event for a competition.
"I really love running two hundreds and I hope I've proved everybody that I can run them. That's the main thing for me, I know I can do it within myself.
"I know I can go faster than that, it's the first time I've ever concentrated on racing in one event. I do 100, 200 and 400 that's not ideal, so I'm going to have to start concentrating on one only. I really only started from Serbia training for this 200."
Williams said that it is looking really good for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi next year.
"You loose the Americans, but you still have the Jamaicans, there is a good chance of definitely making the final if not more," she added.
