Williams, 27, who won the bronze medal in the 100m hurdles at the 2019 World Championships in Doha last October, clocked a fast 23.12 to win the event. The time was well below her previous best of 23.43 set in Birmingham, Alabama on March 9, 2013.
In 2019, Williams a severe ankle sprain hampered her pre-season preparations. This year, things have been much different.
“Background training has been going well. This is the first indoor season in three years that I haven't been injured so I've been able to put in some work and this race is an indication of that,” she told Sportmax.TV Sunday.
Williams, the 2015 World Champion, had an outstanding year in 2019 when she won the Diamond League title and set a new national record of 12.32s in London. She capped off the year winning the bronze medal in Doha.
With all that now behind her, she said she is focussed on her preparation in this Olympic year and enjoying herself.
“Last World's had no bearings on yesterday's race. It was all about competing and having fun in an event I don't get to race often,” she said.
“Any lessons I've taken from the last season in its entirety is to focus on what I can control, drown out the noise and just compete.”
The 23-year-old British Virgin Islander set a new national record of 45.84s over 400 metres at the meet held at Clemson University on Saturday and says that he is as good as any 400-metre hurdler in the world and being in good health will allow him to show the magnitude of his immense talent.
In 2018, McMaster established himself among the world’s elite 400m hurdlers when he clocked a personal best 47.54, one of the fastest times in the world that year when he won gold at the Commonwealth Games, NACAC Senior Championships and the CAC Games.
However, in 2019 he suffered injury setbacks that saw him miss the Pan Am Games and perhaps caused him not to be at his best for the World Championships in Doha where he finished in fourth place in 48.10.
For 2020, he wants to put his injury worries behind him.
“My main focus is staying healthy and to dominate and execute my workouts. Competition is something I have been doing professionally now for four years so the mental preparation for races is always there. So, the main focus is staying healthy and executing workouts,” he said, acknowledging that he can successfully challenge 2019 World Champion Karsten Warholm, silver medallist Rai Benjamin and bronze medallist Abderrahman Samba during the coming outdoor season.
“I think I have the same calibre of talent and put in hard work to contest those athletes,” he said.
“They set the bar high and it’s just like the high jump, sort of. After one athlete clears the bar, the next competitors raise the bar and they surely did that, and I am not trying to foul out this time.”
He is confident he will be in the mix this season.
“I think I’m in pretty good shape this trip around compared to the last few years and I think I do stand a shot to challenge them at Olympics and on the circuit,” he said.
Coming off a strong personal-best 32.91-run over 300m in January, McMaster said he was not surprised by the new national 400m indoor record.
“I guess I knew I could have done it while preparing for it. The thought and execution process was in my head and it was just to transfer it onto the track,” he said, revealing that his training suggested that the time was on the cards.
“Training was projecting something along those lines. I felt confident about that. We all know how sometimes training times don’t reflect in competition so I also left room for optimism.”
The 22-year-old former St. Jago High standout ran 8.07 to win ahead of Tennessee’s Charisma Taylor (8.10) and Amber Hughes (8.20) who ran unattached.
Jamaican 2015 World Champion in the 100m hurdles, Danielle Williams, was also in the race but was disqualified after a false start. She had earlier run 8.07 in the prelims to advance as the fastest qualifier.
Elsewhere, Antiguan Tennessee Junior Joella Lloyd ran 7.21 to finish third in the 60m behind teammate Jacious Sears (7.17) and Nike’s Kayla White (7.20).
Lloyd represented Antigua & Barbuda in the 100m at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 as well as the World Championships and Commonwealth Games in 2022.
