After switching from Britain to Jamaica, Adelle Tracey is in the form of her life in Budapest
Former Great Britain middle-distance star Adele Tracey had a smile as wide as the Danube river adjacent to the stadium despite failing, by just one place, to make the final of the women’s 1500m at the World Championships on Sunday, writes Keith McGhie.
Tracey, proudly resplendent in the black, green and gold of her chosen country of heritage Jamaica since switching allegiance last year, finished seventh, with only six to qualify from her semi-final.
But disappointment turned to unbridled elation when the now Jamaican athlete saw the clock and realised that she had not only dipped below four minutes for the first time but smashed the Caribbean country’s 28-year old national record in the process.
Her semi-final time of 3:58.77 sliced 3.07 seconds off of the old Jamaican record, set by Yvonne Graham in Monaco in 1995.
Tracey, 30, was born in Seattle and largely brought up in the UK and, still sporting a beaming smile afterwards, she enthused: “I’m delighted. It’s been a dream of mine to break four minutes but also to be a national record holder of Jamaica. It’s pretty magical, although it is bitter sweet.
“It’s hard to think that with last year’s qualification standards I might also have made the final but I’ve got to look at the positives. I wanted to come here and run the race of my life and I feel like I’ve just done that. I’ll focus on that and hopefully take the confidence it’s given me into the 800s later in the week.
“My coach has worked really hard to make sure that I peaked here (in Budapest) so I’ve been really frustrated during the season as I’ve been training hard all week and then having my legs full of training if I raced at weekends.
“But that has stood me in good stead here and I’m so glad it all came together. My initial pang of disappointment turned to happiness as soon as I saw the time.”
Her new national record also stands as an Olympic qualifying standard for Paris 2024 and she added: “That’s another nice thing to have ticked off and means that I can concentrate on getting ready for that championship.”
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