Chat-bout.net - Ready For A Showdown

Ready For A Showdown

Jamaican sprint queen Veronica Campbell-Brown and her US rival Allyson Felix can hardly wait to face each other at the upcoming Jamaica International Invitational IAAF World Challenge meet, a clash that will be only their sixth since 2010.

The two, who fielded questions from a number of journalists through a specially arranged conference call by the IAAF yesterday, also took time to weigh in on the seemingly unbreakable female 100m and 200m world records, which are both set by Florence Griffith-Joyner 25 years ago in 1988.

Allyson Felix

Felix, with a 200m personal best of 21.69, falls at number four in the all-time list, considerably slower than Florence Griffith-Joyner's world-record 21.34 run, with Campbell-Brown joint ninth with a best of 21.74.

In the 100m, Campbell-Brown boasts the better personal best of the two, but her 10.76 and Felix's 10.89 both pale in comparison to Griffith-Joyner's 10.49.

However, while noting that the records were not at the forefront of their thoughts, both women weighed in on whether or not they felt they could be broken, while eagerly anticipating their 100m face-off inside the National Stadium on May 4.

"That will be my first individual race and I am just excited to come to Jamaica because I haven't raced there since the World Juniors in 2002," said Felix. "I am just excited to open my season, I had a long year last year and so I will just gradually be getting back to where I need to be this year and I will be racing to get sharpness and hopefully things will come together for me at my nationals."

"When I look at the 200m, the record is so far out there, so for me I just try to improve each year and it's definitely not at the top of my list," said Felix touching on the records. "I never like to say never as far as the record is concerned but realistically speaking, I do think that they are very fast; I don't think at least in the 200m where my focus is, I don't think that record is going anytime soon. I can be wrong because track is like that, where amazing things happen that you are not suspecting."

The pair have met on seven occasions in the 100m, with the Jamaican dominating the head-to-head with six wins to her credit. However, Felix enjoys the edge in the 200m, with a 7-4 win record against Campbell-Brown.

"I love running with Veronica and I love high-quality races and I wish we could meet more, it's just how it works out sometimes," Felix added.

Veronica Campbell-Brown

Campbell-Brown was extremely excited to be returning home to compete in front of her home supporters and her anticipation of another fierce clash against Felix.

100M ATTEMPT

"The 100m in Jamaica will be my first 100m and I will be trying to see where I am but it is always a pleasure and so much fun and excitement to compete at home and so I am really looking forward to entertaining the fans that will be coming out to support us," said Campbell-Brown.

"When we race each other, we know that the performance will be good because we are both fierce competitors, so I normally get an extra boost when I race Allyson, so yes that is something I look forward to," she added before touching on the world records.

"I tend to believe that they (world records) are achievable because if you do not think along that path, then you will never get to it, so although I do not train every day with the world records on my mind, I train to get better and just to get closer to them," said Campbell-Brown.

Jamaica Gleaner

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