Simpson looks to strengthen weaknesses for Olympics

Leighton Levy, Freelance Writer

Despite season best performances at the National Olympic Trials at the National Stadium last weekend, 2006 Commonwealth Games 200-metre champion Sherone Simpson is not a happy camper.

Simpson, who was on Tuesday named to the Olympic team to participate in Beijing in just over a month's time, ran 10.87 seconds for third place in the women's 100 metre finals on Saturday, barely finishing ahead of 100-metre world champion Veronica Campbell-Brown who stopped the clock at 10.88 seconds.

The following day Simpson, whose personal best in the 200 metres is 22.00 seconds, a time she ran twice in 2006, again finished third in the finals, this time in 22.11 seconds. She edged out MVP teammate Shelly-Ann Fraser, who ran a personal best 22.15 seconds in finishing fourth. Lesser mortals would be happy just to make the team. Not so for Simpson.

Not pleased

"Honestly, I was not pleased with how I performed on the weekend," she said. "There is a lot of work to be done. We have a month or so to go before the Olympics, so my coach and I will be working on a few things."

The University of Technology honours graduate said the things she had to improve on most included her 100-metre start and in the 200 metres, her curve running. There were other things, she said, she assumes that her coach Stephen Francis would also have noticed that they would be working on.

However, she is glad she made the team but would have been happier had she performed better.

"Just being on the team, I am very grateful but I need to work on my weak areas," she said.

Before the trials, Simpson had clocked a season-best time of 10.99 over the 100 metres in Eugene, Oregon, on June 8. A week before, she ran 22.43 seconds to win a 200-metre sprint at a Golden League meet in Berlin.