Briana Williams Becomes 2nd Fastest FR. All-Time, 11.30 100m Dash At Jamaican Junior Nationals



Briana Williams is fast, but even her coach, Trinidad & Tobago Olympian and NBC analyst Ato Boldon, is a tad surprised.

Williams recently finished second behind Kevona Davis (11.24) in the Jamaican Junior Nationals in a wind-legal 11.30 seconds. That mark is the second fastest by a freshman in the US ever and third fastest all-time for a 15 year old.

"She definitely surpassed my goals," Boldon said. "I told the Miami Herald she'd be the fastest freshman and run 11.5 at a time when her PR was 12.2 because I know numbers and I could see she was ahead of Khalifa's (St. Fort) sophomore season. Khalifa ran 11.51 that year."


(Photo By Bryan Cummings/Jamaica Observer)

Boldon's training plan is simple. Work hard in practice, race less often and step up when it's crunch time on the largest stages of competition. It's the reason Williams is running her best times in the last three weeks.

She won the Flo Golden South 100m in 11.47, the Trinidad and Tobago Junior National Championships in 11.55, and now a runner-up finish at the Jamaican Junior Nationals in a US No. 3 (regardless of age) time of 11.3. It's a time that would have placed first at USA Juniors this weekend in Sacramento and a far cry from the 12.3 she ran four months ago.

"Based on practice before she left I thought she could run 11.3 for sure, but not 11.30," Boldon said. "That was a nice surprise. She didn't have a great start by her lofty standards because her starts are otherworldly, but she had a good start. It took 11.24 to beat her the #2 time for a 15 year old ever so I'm thrilled for her."

Peaking his athletes for June, July and August was the goal for Boldon. 

 "They will all be under-raced and I don't care about who doesn't understand it. Look at the results. I believe all kids should be under-raced not over-raced. She didn't make the final at Louie Bing and still passed all but two girls in the country at 100m."

Williams also finished second behind Davis (22.97) in the 200m dash, running 23.57,  which gave the youngster the US No. 1 times in both sprints among freshman girls -- she passed Jayla Hollis of Texas (23.80) in the 200m. 

(Photo By Bryan Cummings/Jamaica Observer)

Next up, she will head to Peru for the Pan American Junior Championships, where she will represent Jamaica and contend against the likes of Davis, ASICS professional and USA champion Candace Hill, fellow South Floridian and USA Jr. runner-up Symone Mason. However, she doesn't have to look to far to find her closest competition -- teammate Khalifa St. Fort.

"It will be Khalifa vs. Briana," Boldon said. "Born 2 Do It Battle. Khalifa is the defending champion in the 100 meters and just ran a world junior leading and T&T national junior record time of 11.06, a new PR from her 11.16."

Boldon describes the keys to Williams success as pacing and patience and notes that she'll run even faster than the 11.3 she just dropped.

"Watch," he said. I think by the time this year is over she can go 11.2, but she has run so many PR's this year that even if she didn't run another race she's surpassed every goal we set in both races."

So while others are running out of gas, Boldon's group is just heating up. As for when they get back to work, he will give Williams a little time to recover from a big PR weekend in two events.

"She'll get all of this coming week off," he said. Then we work on strength and speed and rest into the meet."