 We are switching lanes now to track and field the Sportsmax zone has welcomed many champions over the years and today we have another among our ranks this woman has captured world championship gold on two occasions eight years apart first in 2015 and then 2023 guessed it yet but it's the reigning 100 meter hurdles world champion Daniel Williams and she had a chat with Ricardo and Mariah earlier today all right so Daniel Williams is a pleasure to have you on our set today and you know I just want to start instantly by of course thanking you one for making the time to join us and to ask you about you know how was last season for you I think it's important that we reflect on what last season was because it was a really good season for you well thank you for having me um last season to summit up I would say tumultuous there was a lot of ups and downs but I think it ended on a very strong note and so I looked to that for inspiration for this year yeah and speaking about a very strong season last year talk to us a bit more um so it started off the indoor season we wanted to run a couple indoor races that's January through March and then I got injured I injured my foot so we really had to to back off a bit off that and then so we've turned our focus to the outdoor season and it started the outdoor season started very strong I started with what was my I think my third fastest opener in April and then it kind of went downhill from there I started running very slow times and really we really had to stop and look and and assess what we were doing in trading at that time to say hey what we're doing right now is obviously not working because we're not seeing the results and so we we shifted focus for a bit and then we started getting the results that we were looking for and um so yeah the focus for last years I was always the world championship um and doing our best performance at our best at that moment at that meet and we used the necessary meets the diamond league meets the continental tour meets uh to get us in shape for that championship how are you able to stay focused when things are not going your way my support system for one um I have a very close knit support system that keeps me grounded that they believe in me they push me they pick me up when I fall and I believe in God first and foremost and I believe that he will place me where I need to be and the things that I go through are really just stepping stones to get me to where I need to be and if I stay grounded it will work out for me yeah and you have been through a lot but you have consistently found a way to get through them and come out on the better end and we've we've seen that so often in your career 2024 will start with the world indoor championships being the first major event is that something that's on the cards for you it is not on the cards this year no my singular focus yes my singular focus this year will be the olympic games and that's because you've never been to an olympic games is it yes that is the only reason how do you approach this year given the significance of it for you clearly because you're a two-time world champion and when you're a two-time world champion you go well yeah definitely that person has also been to the olympic games but you haven't how does a year like that greet Danielle Williams I try not to make it bigger than it is I really treat it as another championship just so that I don't get too lost in the moments but definitely I have taken a much different approach than I have previous years previous championships and I sat back and I analyzed everything I did last year and I was like what can I do differently to make sure that this year goes smooth as smooth as possible and so I've I've taken stock of my training my recovery my nutrition my hydration every facet of my preparation I'm ensuring that is in the right hands and it's going forward so that I am in the best possible position come June in the for the national championships to beyond that team yeah and we definitely look forward to that I've always been interested because you're pretty fast right 725 for 60 um 11 2 for the 100 surprisingly and a lot of people may not even realize this 226 for 200 was there ever a part of your career and I remember as well you winning a 100 class two title at champs was there ever a part of your career where you went hmm maybe I'll think about the flat sprints no no why not um I actually think the 200 is is my stronger event to be honest I just don't want to do the 400 and the background for that but as far as the 100 I have never considered myself to be a strong sprinter and part of is probably because we haven't worked on it yet at all so the phases that I need to do I have not been good at it I mean even around a 60 meter last weekend and I ran two rounds the prelims on the finals the prelims coach said hey you're first you got up as if you were running for two hours the hurdles let's fix that for the finals and then I tried to fix it for the finals and I stumbled so it's it's never anything that I could get consistently yeah and so I've never thought that hey let me go and run the flat sprints so you're just sticking to what you know da yes yeah and it has worked out pretty well for you um the relationship with your sister shermane um you've both been in a world championship final together 2015 when you won your first world title so clearly that is memorable for you yes um personally I remember shermane on the scene before you were on the scene and I thought to myself this girl is going to be something special especially after she won the world youth silver medal and then you came along and people went oh there are sisters and this one is even better how was the relationship changed and matured over the years if any at all especially because she doesn't compete as much anymore um shermane was like the catalyst for me being an athlete I mean I saw her growing up and she was making teams and she was winning medals and she was really the driving force behind my success as a young athlete coming up and we got a chance to attend college together and returning together and we were really real competitors um she pushed me and I pushed her and you know she's always happy for me uh she didn't get to the heights that I got to but I'd like to think that you know she enjoyed her career and she got the best that she could get out of it and you know she's always there wishing me best of luck and congratulations and all that so it's it's definitely good to have her and my other siblings in my corner yeah is it the type of relationship where she gives you a lot of um competition advice a lot of training advice technical advice no shermane is a woman of few words so no not at all that I remember very much um here's a discussion for you I think personally that daniel williams is now the greatest jamaican sprint hurdler ever based on everything that you've achieved and and that is massive when you think about the hurdlers that jamaica has produced from michael freeman to delirene and bridget foster hilton to the current crop which is really really good and given your two world titles I think you are the pick of that bunch how do you see yourselves yourself um in the history of jamaican sprint hurdling you know I've never really thought about it to be honest I mean I've heard people mentioned that before but that's not something that I think about I mean I don't really know the accolades of the other hurdlers I mean a new bridget I think bridget has all three colors from the world championship yes and nobody except megan has an olympic medal there you go so I really the others I really don't know per se I mean I'd have to look at their body of work versus my body of work but um if that is really true then it is an honor to be considered to be the greatest jamaican hurdler and I know we have a rich history so that's definitely an honor for me to even be in that conversation yeah how's a day in training for you I know you're very busy it depends on the day every day every day is not the same for like Monday is the busiest day because we were coming off of a day's rest as coach would like to say so we don't practice on Sunday so we're coming off a day's rest so Monday is the busiest day Mondays are heavy running day Mondays when we do a lot of running right now we're in our background pre-season so we're doing a lot of over distance stuff and so that day is the heaviest day because we have a lot of running in our legs and then I have leg day at the gym and so and then I have treatment and all that so really a full day for me is training starts at 9 30 and I don't get home until 4 or 4 30 on Mondays so it's really a full day and we have days where it's just hurdles and we have days where it's just plyometrics and core days but every day is a different day Lenox Graham your coach and you've had a wonderful working relationship over the years I'm interested though did you go to Lenox because he had your sister how did that happen I tell him all the time that he really didn't give me a choice he didn't recruit me to go to his school I remember that I think it was probably a Jamaican international invitational meet yes way back then and I saw him in the stands and he came with Charmaine at the time and and Leeford and he was like you're gonna come to my school and I was like okay and that was just how it worked out and when it was time for me to graduate from high school and matriculate into college it's like you're coming to my school and I was like I'm coming to your school and so I just naturally and he had my sister and he had coached her when she went to alpha as well and so I'd known him for a very long time as a young girl and so it just felt natural and by the time you had finished Johnson C Smith you felt comfortable and confident enough that he was the man to take your career forward your professional career yeah because I mean I went into Johnson C Smith as a little girl who I didn't really do much at the Queen's school when I was an athlete there I mean I remember one of the first practice sessions when we went to Johnson C Smith and at the end of the warm-up I'm like is that the end of practice practice at Queen's lasted for about an hour and hour and a half max and here I am and the warm-up is one hour and we're just okay it's time to the workouts now so I was like okay so I came to realize that I wasn't really doing much as an athlete at Queen's and that the success that I had found there it was just really just natural talent at that point and then so he took me from that point and he took me all the way to 12.69 and a world championship birth in 2013 and I was like clearly you know what you're doing so why would I go anywhere did you leave high school early I did I did not go to class one yes why because I finished school I need to sixth form I did both years as sixth form and I finished school so it's time to move on okay so leaving on time but leaving the high school track and field see in early yes um here's possibly a tough one right 2019 was a tough incident at the national championships I can only imagine how tough it was for you as an athlete to to be involved with it right as a commentator it was tough for me and I could feel inside the national stadium that it was tough for the fans there as well to see you disqualified in that way and the emotions that followed four years on um how do you reflect on that incident do you feel any differently about it to be quite honest is something that I kind of put to the back of my mind I really try not to think about it I really try not to talk about it I mean every now and then we're at where I train it and it comes up when we're talking about things but I try not to think about it I try to move on from negative things and focus on the positive for me it was really a negative experience one that I wish that no athletes would ever have to experience for themselves and so um I try to move from it move on and not dwell on it and and learn from what happened in that moment and try never to to put myself in that position ever again and that's just my take on on that incident yeah quickly do you feel you got enough support but then from the people who mattered to me yes yes um I don't really pay attention to what's happening outside of that and so I really don't know what was going on outside of the people who are important to me and and they had my back a hundred percent and that was all that counted for me you know listening to you I could tell that you know you're very very certain about what you're doing it's as if nothing really affects you if it doesn't matter because I'm listening to your answers when Ricardo is asking how are you able to just be so sure about what you want to do and not get you know like get accustomed or you know become easy um I've always been pretty determined I've said standard for my life that I want to achieve I said goals that I want to achieve and I try not to let anything throw me off that path um at the end of the day this is my job and this is the thing that I've chosen to do and so I have to stay focused on what is the bigger picture and yeah that's really it for me I mean if I allow all the outside noises and the negativity to get in then I am going to be a sink it's just some kind of ship and so I try to stay afloat um I have to stay afloat in order to achieve anything in this sport you can't really let anything get to because you have to be hyper focused on what it is I mean you really have one opportunity to get it done and if you let the outside influences come in then you're you're not going to achieve what you're wanting to achieve track and field is a pretty difficult sport you outlined earlier what a training day could look like and how difficult that is generally for you because as a professional and it doesn't matter what you do sometimes it becomes a lot and you need a breather how does Daniel Williams get a breather I have all my friends we like to have our game nights or we just relax and like every Friday no not anymore we used to but not anymore um you know we hang out we go out we shoot the breeze I watch tv I play games on my phone or on my tv in the party I do not know are you a series watcher or a movie watcher a series watcher yeah which one are you watching now well I just started a typical um while I was on the plane sounds like something Mariah would watch I literally just watched episode one while I was on the flight last night but I'm more of like a master shift got a girl or a Hills kitchen I watched wheel of fortune in jeopardy every night so do you cook a lot I do yes yeah what's your favorite meal what could you chef up for us in a short time in the short time probably some pasta chicken pasta or something I hope it's better than the one I had with Mariah the other night it will be for sure for sure it would be yeah um so here we are in 2024 by the way you are in Jamaica for the RGR sports foundation um sportsman and sportswoman of the year awards um I want to get from you just how happy you are to be nominated again for that award and for the people's choice award as well oh man it's to hear that I was nominated for the sportswoman of the world actually took me by surprise I was like wow really yeah you won the world title yeah but I wasn't thinking along those lines to be honest and so when I heard I was like wow I got nominated and so to know that we have such a rich especially female sports history yeah and to be counted among I think this is my second nomination so to be counted among the worthy to be nominated I mean we women have been excelling in sports recently and so to be nominated is it's an extreme honor and then I saw that um I was nominated for the people's choice award as well and so that's definitely something to look forward to um I see the competitors that I'm up against and as a competitor you want to win but I see their bodies of work and I honestly believe they're as deserving as I am so it could go either way yeah and based on what we've learned um Mariah when it comes to the sportsman and sportswoman of the year award you or awards you have um specific criteria that is used to determine the winner but when it comes to the people's choice award it's all about how I feel about the performance and Daniel Williams is my people's choice winner for 2023 there is no gold medal that felt sweeter than a lane one victory or was it lane two on the nine lane track yeah lane two on the nine lane track um for me the upset of the 2023 world championships in Budapest so I hope you win that later on thank you um and if you don't you can consider yourself having a sportsman say that again I don't know why everybody seems to think it's an upset you didn't see it as an upset I didn't see it as an upset when I um going going into the world championships uh before I had a conversation on a coach and was like do we think we can win and say yes we can but it's going to be tough and that was like for a month out training session started we went into the camp we were training very well I was doing some starts with Orlando at the time and we were very competitive and I started getting more and more confident I went into the first round and I went into the first round to run 12-5 I thought 12-5 was good enough it's usually a good enough time it's going to be competitive fortunately my competitor was on a different time which it's fine so I was like okay cool I still know where I am everybody else ran 12-5 we are where we need to be I went into the semifinals and I ran the semifinals and the position I finished third in the semifinals as the fastest loser but I know the exact mistake that I made in that race because I was winning I was leading and I knew the exact mistake I made and I went around to the finals to the warm-up track and I told coach we have it don't worry and so I went into the finals knowing that I could win if I ran my race that I needed to run that's what I did you know what the amazing thing is every race I saw you run in 2023 in the build-up to the world championship final looked very similar you led to 60 to 70 and then you were third fourth whatever the case might be but in that final something was different can you quickly tell us what that something was well it was the finals everything was on the line I knew that my starts had been pretty consistent over the year over the the course of the year I knew where I was making the mistake and it wasn't a mistake that I could correct overnight but I knew that if I was just able to just fix it fix it in that moment and it still wasn't fixed but it was slightly better than it was they'd have to catch me because I was already going to be so far gone and so I know if I could just stay ahead of myself just a little bit in that moment then they would the only place they could catch me was at the finish line and so it just so happened that they were closing but they weren't closing fast enough and so it worked out in my favor and sometimes the pressure of the moment they just can't get back yes and no one got back to Daniel Williams in Budapest 2023 like they didn't in Beijing 2015 Daniel Williams thanks very much for chatting with us thank you for having me yeah an excellent chat there with uh Daniel Williams and a very very significant towards the back end of that interview Ricardo that she didn't consider her win an upset most experts considered it an upset most media considered it an upset and I think partly because is there a more competitive event in world track and feed than the women's 100 meter hurdles I think not no I think not as well yeah and I think it has been that way for a long time yeah where when you get into these major finals you have eight women who all believe if they get it right they can win the gold medal and I think that's what we got from Daniel Williams there because even though she hadn't won a major race for the entire season leading into that final she still felt if she put it together she could have won the gold medal and she did yeah and you know what they're like I think like eight women faster than she was in 2023 on on the top list and when you look at Kamasha Quinn Kendra Harrison Nia Ali um Tia Jones Amosan the world record holder you when these girls line up you have no clue as to who is going to win not the similar to 2015 when she won as well lands when she won in 2015 Daniel Williams it came out of nowhere nobody expected her to win that world title I'm not even sure if many expected her to be in the world championship final or to win a medal but I think as well sometimes in the women's 100 hurdles the athlete who comes through is the one who does not have the pressure of the moment and I've seen that time and time again I remember with Dawn Harper in 2008 when a lot of the focus was on Lola Jones and the Jamaican athletes as well um and and so many other races where you see the underdogs coming through in the women's 100 hurdles or the athlete who has garnered the experience over time and understands how to handle the pressure of yeah I think that's a very very good point and um it was what brought her through because I when I look back at that race at 80 meters Kendra Harrison to me looked as if she was just about to to edge ahead yeah of Daniel Williams and she had had none of that and there is one athlete you just mentioned lands who hasn't necessarily handed the pressure of the biggest moments well Kendra Harrison um but maybe her time is still to come yeah Bridget Foster Hilton the Jamaican for many years finished second and third and then finally won her world title in 2009 in Berlin in Berlin yeah and again she wasn't the favorite in 2009 when she won point well taken maybe the athletes in those moments that feel less pressured and less on their shoulders to beer maybe have the upper hand so Daniel Williams really great interview there and um I hope she wins a a good award tonight at the RJ Arglina Sports Foundation Awards and I hope she makes it to the Olympics this year Lance I really do hope she makes it to Paris I think she will I think she will we go to break back with one of the sports might zone out for this