The Jamaica Star :: Sport :: 'When the world is watching I want to give my best ...'

GORDON WILLIAMS, Contributor

Sanya Richards - file

philadelphia, pennsylvania

The big smile and laughter last weekend gave no indication that just a year ago Jamaican-born Sanya Richards was going through possibly the toughest time in her life and athletic career.

A cold virus had "interacted" with a disease linked to her genetic make-up, she said, and arguably the world's best quarter-miler was forced to miss the annual Penn Relays here. With her preparations hampered, Richards would later find herself struggling - and failing - to make the 2007 World Championships of Athletics for her adapted country the United States in her pet event.

Extremely challenging

"It was extremely, extremely challenging to be ill and not 100 per cent and kinda not know what to expect from your body," explained Richards, who is expected to run the 400 metres at this Saturday's Jamaica International Invitational (JII) meet at the National Stadium.

"A lot of times I'd be missing training. I just wasn't feeling well. So to not make the team in the event that I'd been dreaming about going back to and winning the gold medal was tough."

Yet 2007 was not a total write-off. Richards made the United States team in the individual 200 metres. She finished fifth in the final in Osaka, Japan, beaten by teammate Allyson Felix, who won gold, and runner-up Jamaica's Veronica Campbell. But Richards was a member of the United States' gold medal 4x400 metres team.

"I still had my small successes," the 23-year-old said, "and I'm still happy about those."

Engaged

Over the past 12 months some of those did not even come on the track. In 2007 Richards, who left Jamaica at age 12 and attended both high school and university in the United States, got engaged to long-time boyfriend Aaron Ross, who now plays American football for the New York Giants. Richards and Ross, then a rookie defensive player, celebrated his team's National Football League (NFL) Super Bowl win in February. Now she is hoping to continue the partnership's successful run this year.

"I feel very fortunate," Richards said before running two relay legs (4x100 and 4x400) for the United States at this year's Penn Relays. "I mean, my fiancé had the best year of his life. I think of (the Super Bowl win) as a victory of 2008. So, hopefully, I'll have my victory in 2008 as well."

Eyes on Olympic gold

By that she means the Olympic Games in Beijing, China this summer. Richards, who won an Olympic title as a member of the United States 4x400 team in 2004 in Athens, wants her own individual gold medal. But she has set other goals as well.

"I really want to run 48 (seconds in the 400 metres) more consistently this year," said the American record holder and former International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) "Female World Athlete of the Year".

"So I'm hoping to have a 48 performance at the Olympics. When the entire world is watching I want to give my best performance. Of course I want to get the gold medal, but I also want to run as fast as I want, too."

That would eclipse the disappointments of 2007, although Richards said she doesn't dwell on the illness because she couldn't prevent it.

"There wasn't anything I did wrong," she said. "I wasn't not taking care of myself or anything like that. So I have solace in the fact that everything happens for a reason."

So now Jamaica's best female quarter-milers will have a happy Richards to worry about. For them, that may be a bad sign. But there are no bad feelings from Richards. She freely admits her admiration and attachment to Jamaica.

"I love competing against the Jamaicans," she said. "I always cheer for them. I have mixed feelings about it. I'm 100 percent loyal to my team, but I hope (Jamaicans) compete well."

On Saturday, she again gets the best of both worlds.

Gordon Williams is a Jamaican journalist based in the United States.