By Neto Baptiste
National sprinter and record-holder in both the women’s 100 and 200 meters, Joella Lloyd, believes she is currently in her best possible shape and is confident of a “good showing” at this year’s World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, from July 15-24.
Speaking on the Good Morning Jojo Sports show after lowering the mark on her 200 meters national record to 22.79, which bettered the previous record of 23.09 she set in early May, Lloyd said she is hoping to take her current condition into the world event come July.
“It took a while for my body to get going this year and I wasn’t able to do as well as I wanted to indoors and some parts of the outdoors. I feel like next weekend, from nationals, I would start making my mark, [and] I feel really good now that I am almost done with the collegiate season. Last year, I [was] really fatigued and my body wasn’t cooperating, but this year I feel like I have a lot of energy, so I think I will have a good showing at this World Championships,” she said.
Lloyd was competing in the women’s 200m at the NCAA East Regional Preliminaries on the weekend when she ran the new national record and personal best that also qualified her for the World Athletics Championships.
The recent University of Tennessee graduate, said she did not expect such a good showing.
“I don’t train for the 200 and we’ve been talking about going sub 23 [seconds] off season, so that was really a surprise for me and it was a really good race in the end. One of the goals this season was to qualify for World Championships because I don’t think they take wildcards. My coach and I had been talking about July 12 to 16 so that was one of the goals and hopefully we can get in on the 100 as well,” the athlete said.
Lloyd, who revealed she is targeting a time of 22.4 in the 200 meters while hoping for a sub-11 performance in the 100 meters, said she has seen improvement in some areas of her races, particularly when coming out of the blocks.
“For most of my 100 meters I am out [quickly] but we are working on the ending now that I have improved the start, and for the 200 I think it’s that I have more endurance throughout the race so I can keep on going for longer,” she said.
Lloyd’s recent performance put her at fourth All-Time for her school and the first Antiguan woman to break the 23-second barrier.