Great Britain’s Jodie Williams, third in the voting for the 2010 European Athletics Rising Star of the Year award and this year’s World Junior Championships 100m gold medallist despite only having just turned 17, has ruled out competing at next summer’s World Championships.
She and her advisors have decided that travelling all the way to the South Korean city of Daegu would not be in her best long-term interest but she has kept the door open for next year’s European Athletics Indoor Championships.
The 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships will be held in the Palais Omnisport Paris-Bercy in the French capital between March 4-6.
Also definitely on her agenda is the 2011 European Athletics Junior Championships in Tallinn, Estonia.
“I am definitely pleased with how the season went looking back on it now and I am a lot happier with what I managed to achieve,” said Williams earlier this week.
“I had about a six-week break and I am back in training now. I will definitely do an indoor season but I don’t quite know what I will be doing yet, possibly the European indoors in Paris.
“I am not certain; we will have to see how the winter goes and how the start of the indoor season goes as well, because the main focus of the year is the European juniors. However, Paris, unlike South Korea, isn’t that far away and would be much more appealing to me.
“I am not going to travel all the way to the senior worlds it is just too far. I think I am going to stick with juniors in terms of the major competition but I will try and get involved in some of the senior grand prix events in England to try and get used to it and make the transition smooth” she added.
“I don’t really want to be just another name. Every time there is a junior athlete coming up, they get talked up and not much happens.
“This is why I want to make the transition as smooth as possible. I have also got a few things to work on and I have talked to my coach about where I have gone right and where I have gone wrong.”
The lightning-quick Williams, who also won the 2009 World Youth Championships 100m and 200m, turned 17 on September 28 and this summer ran a British junior 100m record of 11.24 even though she has another two years in the age group.
The time makes her the holder of the European Youth Best for the distance, although there are no official records.
She also ran 200m in 22.79 in 2010 which, like her 100m mark, is a European Youth Best.
Even though she suffered a well-publicised defeat over the longer distance at the World Junior Championships in Canada this summer, only three other women have ever run faster than her in the youth age group.
Williams topped this year’s European junior ranking at both distances and is the clear favourite for two gold medals at the European Athletics Junior Championships.
However, stopping Williams getting complacent will be the knowledge that the Netherlands’ Jamile Samuel is also still eligible to compete in Tallinn.
Samuel, 18 and a year older than Williams, set Dutch junior records at both 100m and 200m this year with times of 11.44 and 23.21 and also showed that she can rise to the occasion by taking bronze medals at both distances at the 2010 World Junior Championships.
The Dutch sprinter lies second, behind Williams, on the 2010 European junior rankings for the 100m and 200m.