Debbie Ferguson, women's Commonwealth Games 100m winner in 10.91 (© Getty Images)
If early season form is indicative of things to come, Debbie Ferguson's fast start in 2003 has shown that the 27-year-old from the Bahamas, for several seasons at the cusp of true greatness, is ready to make the great leap to the very top, writes Bob Ramsak for the IAAF.
Opening her season earlier than usual, last year's Commonwealth Games double sprint champion sped to 10.97 and 22.50 world leading performances in South Africa's Engen Summer Series in Durban earlier this month, signalling that the departure of Marion Jones from the sprint world this year may not have left
the void that some have been anticipating.
“I was hoping to run 11-0's at least,” she said of her April 11 race in Durban, “but when I got 10.97, I was really happy and really excited about it. I've never run this fast this early in the season.” In fact, last year she only once ran faster over 100 metres, and dipped under 22.50 in the half lap just twice.
Her quick start, she says, is attributed to two key factors: a much earlier training start and a new comfort level with the regimen of coach Amy Deem, who she's been working with since February of last year.
“Last year, when I came [to Miami] to train with coach Deem, I started in February. I started kind of late,” she said. “This year I basically started just about from November, and we've been training since then. I've been able to do stuff that I started learning from her last year. It's more confirming that it's there. I'm not thinking as much when I'm competing now. It's instilled. It's there. I'm more comfortable. I know what she wants, what she's looking for, and I'm more confident in myself compared to last year. So it's a mixture of all of the above."
She expressed some frustration with her initial outings last year, an early season she bluntly described as “crappy.” “Things weren't working out for me the way that I wanted them to. I knew it was there, but it just wouldn't happen.”
“Then all of a sudden,” she said, “everything came together for me at the Commonwealth Games, and then I came back and ran well when it counted,” notably a runner-up finish in the 100m at the IAAF Grand Prix Final and a 200m win at the IAAF World Cup. In Manchester, she rose to the occasion in the competition she ranks as second only to the Olympic Games, dashing to a
10.91 PB in the 100 and a 22.20 in the 200, just .01 off of her best set in
1999.
The latter half of her 2002 campaign was not just invigorating, it was nothing short of a rebirth which she hopes will propel a "new Debbie" to the fore.
“For me last year, it was liberating,” she said somewhat matter-of-factly. “I got a lot of confidence from it. I think in every athlete’s life, that's what they need -to realise that you can do it too. We all think of it and want to do it, but sometimes we don't always believe it. And I'm talking from experience. That's something that helped me really believe in myself and in what I'm capable of doing.”
By the time she graduated with honours from the University of Georgia in 1999, where she was a 16-time NCAA All-American winner, she was already showing signs of what she was capable.
In the short sprint, she was a semi-finalist in Atlanta and at the 1997 and 1999 World Championships, and in the 200, her favourite event, she was fifth at the 1999 World Championships and Grand Prix Final, and won the Pan-American Games title that year as well. She reached the final in both sprints in Sydney and Edmonton, and claimed silver in the 200 at the latter. As part of the Bahamian "Golden Girls" 400 metres relay quartet that struck gold in Seville and Sydney, her place in Bahamian athletics history is already secure, but now she's still shooting for more.
“It helped me,” she continued, referring to her late season momentum in 2002. “I know that there are a lot of athletes out there where, when you step on the track, a lot of times, with MJ in the race, or whoever, you're running for second place. And I realised because of last year, I don't have to do that anymore. I can do just as well as anybody. I'm being honest. This is how it is. I think, knowing that now, it just makes Debbie a different person when I step on the track."
Ferguson said she will miss Marion Jones on the circuit this year, but knows that the absence of the mother-to-be, will not make the season, or August's World Championships, any easier.
“Honestly, yes I will [miss her]. But the show must go on. I feel like it's going to be a really tough World Championships. You still have the rest of the field there.”
Ferguson and Jones have developed a camaraderie over the past several seasons, which is another aspect she'll miss this season.
“Off the track, I'm one of those people who gets along with any and everybody,” she said. “We travel so much together. On the track we're not friends -that's how it's supposed to be- but off the track everybody should be able to talk and get along, and that's how we are. We talk, we joke. In sports, that's one thing that we can do to bridge a gap. Whatever country, whatever gender, whatever status, sport has brought us all together. That's
something that we should cherish.”
Ferguson takes her ‘off-the-track’ attitude to heart in her non-athletics work as well. Last year, she was appointed a World Food Day Ambassador by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, an on-going project that she hopes to
incorporate into her travels while competing. She also devotes a lot of energy to various mentoring programmes during her off-season, working with school children at home in the Bahamas, and at her training bases in the United States.
“I remember how I felt,” she explained. “I needed constant reminding. A lot of these kids won't listen to their parents, but they'll listen to their role models. So when they see me on the TV or wherever, this is what the kids relate to.”
Her message is simple and straightforward.
“I tell them that I'm a firm believer that dreams do come true, but you'll have to work hard for it and towards it. And it's not going to drop in your lap. I try to encourage those who are doing things athletically-inclined to do it to the best of your ability, but its always important, more important, to take care of the academics. Those two go hand-in-hand, and with both, man, you'll reach the moon.”
But back on the track, much of her four-hour daily spring training sessions are devoted to improving her start, admittedly the weakest aspect of her race. “It doesn't have to be the best start in the world, but if I could be a little bit more consistent.”
She plans to double in Paris, but is unsure about her competitive plan for the Pan-American Games in Santo Domingo. “We haven't decided on that yet,” she said, “but I may not double there. It's too close to the World Championships to do a ‘double’, and relay duty there.”
In May, Ferguson’s confirmed for the 100m at the adidas Oregon Track Classic (17 May) where she'll face American Kelli White - who also has a 10.97 to her credit this season -, and was also recently added to the 100m start list for next weekend's Grand Prix Banamex in Mexico City (3 May).
