McPherson: It's all about 'execution'

SHANGHAI, China:

Jamaica's 400 metres standout Stephenie-Ann McPherson says she is looking ahead to the rest of the year with high expectations after what she has called her best preparatory background season ever.

McPherson, the Commonwealth Games champion and two-time World Championships finalist, clocked a season best 50.98 this after a morale-boosting second-place finish at the IAAF Diamond League in Shanghai last Saturday. She finished behind Bahamas' World Championships silver medallist Shaunae Miller, 50.45 and ahead of experienced American Natasha Hastings, 51.10.

The 27-year-old, who had earlier got her 400m campaign off and running with a 51.20 third-place finish at the Jamaica International Invitational told STAR Sports that she has reported for the season in the best physical shape and is certainly expecting the results to show.

"Normally, when it comes around to January, I tend to back off in training, but this year I had a serious talk with my coach (Stephen Francis) and he pointed out where I always go wrong because I always do fairly well in my background training and when it comes to January, I lose that a bit and end up losing a lot of speed and strength, so I have to work hard on keeping that," she said.

Extra motivation

The sprinter, who said she left last year's World Championships in Beijing with extra motivation after an encouraging performance which came despite several injury setbacks, is now pushing on and says she is serious about improving the execution of her races, as she looks to make better use of her speed and properly distribute her energy throughout the event.

"I always think I can accomplish great things but I always have a problem with execution and I am working really hard on that and on improving my technique. When I go out there most of the time; perhaps I am too excited so I always start to run and go out too hard, so I am working really hard to control my speed because I am very fast and have done well in my 200m runs this season," McPherson added.