Michelle Perry of the US celebrates winning gold in the 110m Hurdles (© Getty Images)
Ah, choices. Isn’t it great to have them? Michelle Perry is sure glad she made the right one this season in focusing on the 100m hurdles rather than the Heptathlon - her previous specialty. Tonight she left Helsinki Olympic stadium as the World 100m Hurdles champion, a gold medal around her neck and $60,000 US prize. Who’d have thought, eh?
The 26-year-old UCLA graduate has trained for the past two years with 2003 World Heptathlon champion Eunice Barber of France in southern California but a hyper fast race over the hurdles got her thinking, wait a minute, maybe there’s a choice!
A personal preference
“After New York I ran really well there,” she recalls, “and basically we were still in the process of preparing for the Heptathlon. And my coach was like ‘you have got to make a decision' And I was like, ‘I don’t know what to do And he was like ‘It’s your choice.' so I called him and said ‘I think I am going to stick with the Hurdles this year.’
That day she ran an incredible 12.45 seconds, a time that would have been the fastest time in the world had she not surpassed it in winning the US championships in 12.43. Upon arriving in Helsinki she owned four of the five fastest times of the year. So it was an easy choice to make. This early success in the hurdles wasn’t the only factor.
“In the Heptathlon you don’t have too many days where you feel good and so when I stopped training for the Heptathlon I had days where I actually would go to the track and I was like "you know my back doesn’t hurt today, my hamstring doesn’t hurt.'” she remembers. “So it was good to actually go to practice and have days where you feel like, you know, I can run well today" whereas in the Pent and Heptathlon every day is a battle.”
But a Combined Event fan still
During the epic Heptathlon battle between Barber and the eventual victor Caroline Klüft, Perry was glued to her television set and her neighbours would surely have known where her loyalties lay.
“I was watching it in the hotel the first two days,” she admits. “I was Eunice’s cheerleader so I was really excited for her I thought she was going to pull it out and I was screaming at the 800m ‘run faster.’ It didn’t happen for her. I trained with the the last two years in the heptathlon and she is really an inspiration to me, as far as the field events. She is a great competitor. She helps me as far as being a better competitor and just going out and being fierce.”
Irresistible humour
If first impressions are everything it doesn’t take long to like Michelle Perry. Talented and possessing an effervescent personality, she admits to being anxious the night before her gold medal race. You have no choice but to laugh along as she recounts the stress she placed on herself on the eve of her greatest victory - thus far.
“Ok, let me just tell you I haven’t eaten since breakfast this morning,” she says laughing. “And last night it took me until 2:30 to go to sleep and I was just talking to whoever would talk to me so I wouldn’t think about the race.
But now of course it’s over. I feel better. But last night I was kind of antsy. Monique Hennigan was my roommate. I was talking to her all night and she was going, 'Go to sleep.' “
Returning to the heptathlon next year
Perry says she plans to return to the Heptathlon next year. A year ago she finished 14th in the Athens Olympics with a score of 6124 and would like to improve upon that score. Meanwhile, she has become a hurdling enthusiast this season seemingly enjoying the exceptional level of competition offered.
“I think it is because there are a lot of girls that have personal bests in the ‘40's’. And then Joanna (Hayes) is the only woman who has gone in the ‘30's’ other than Gail Devers, and she is not competing this year,” Perry explains. “This year everyone was running fast and it was anyone’s race. It was just the person who put the right race together at the right time.”
With the intensity of competition come peak performances. A couple of European meets are on the cards. Her agent Emmanuel Hudson is working on those right now and this young woman has set some pretty lofty goals.
“Once I start running well I set my goals at the World record,” she declares without a hint of doubt, “and now its just like if I achieve it I achieve it. And if I don’t I gave 100% to get there.”
Paul Gains for the IAAF
