Jana Rawlison of Australia celebrates her gold medal in the Women's 400m Hurdles Final (© Getty Images)
Listening to Jana Rawlinson after she won her second world title, she made the 400m Hurdles final sound like a mothers’ union meeting.
“There were three mommies in our final, it was brilliant,” Rawlinson said. The reason for this declaration of solidarity – the others, incidentally are Tiffany Williams of the USA and Briton Tasha Danvers-Smith - was a question on how having a baby boy, Cornelis, eight months ago had changed the former Jana Pittman’s life.
“Apart from my marriage, and winning a second title, having a baby is one of the highlights of my life,” Rawlinson said. “Winning is all the sweeter for having a wonderful husband, and a lovely boy back home to share it with. He’s with my mother, and granddad is chasing him round the table. But it’s been a very rocky last few months. Three to four months have been very up and down, I was talking to Paula Radcliffe (world Marathon record holder), and it sounds like a similar experience. So if I can do this after eight months, next year is going to be very exciting.”
“Four weeks later (after the birth), I had my wisdom teeth out, the next week I got plantar fasciitis, and missed 10 weeks. And, of course having the baby in day-care, he was coming back with colds and flu. So I had to work really hard every time I went to the track. Chris worked me hard over the hurdles, because basically, I’ve been a good 400m runner who couldn’t hurdle. It went well tonight up to the eighth hurdle, but I changed down (the number of strides between hurdles) too soon. But I was the strongest off the tenth hurdle.”
Being Australian with a British husband, the couple (now trio) spend their time between the two countries, with a break in Los Angeles in April and May. Chris, who has been coaching her since 2005 explained, “Even though Jana won the Commonwealth Games (March 2006), she had a back injury, so we decided it was the ideal time to have a child. It’s been good for us, it’s really changed her focus. When we’re in the UK, we stay in Loughborough (university), where my old coach, Nick Dakin is based. If I’m not around, he can oversee her training. And the facilities are awesome.”
Hubbie was worried that his wife was overheating under the arc light during the press conference. “We need to get her into an ice-jacket, to get her core temperature down. We’ve been using one ever since we got here, because of the conditions, and she’s still got a long season ahead of her.”
Jana added, “The last 50 metres didn’t go the way we planned it. I was actually ‘on’ for a very good time tonight until the eighth hurdle. I think I would done a personal best (currently 53.22sec, from 2004). I want to run 400 metres (flat) in either Berlin and Brussels, to improve my speed. It’s about time I got under 53 seconds.”
Pat Butcher for the IAAF
