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Karjuan Williams of the New Orleans Comets won the junior men's
800m in bold fashion, by going to the front and staving off all
challenges. Williams, just a sophomore, runs everything from 100m
to 1,600m in competition. His older brother Joel is an 800m runner
for Jackson State who ran the semifinals in the open competition
not long after Karjuan's victory.
Karjuan
Williams:
I'm disappointed in my time, and the way I ran. I felt off. I was
right there, but I don't feel like I'm there anymore. I feel like
I'm losing time from where I was. I'm not peaking anymore. I'm off.
Q:
They challenged you on the homestretch, but you held them off.
KW:
That's what we're training to do. When you train to do something,
most of the time, 75% of the time, it will happen. We train running
against a strong wind. You overcome it.
Q:
Rebekah Noble's coach was talking about the 800 being a one-move
race, but you made several.
KW:
It should be a one-move race. But everyone who led, everyone had
their plan mapped out and all that. It can't be a one-move race,
even though it should be. For a person who gets out early, and tries
to take the pace, or somebody in a strong headwind, with others
sitting behind them and letting them take the pace, there are a
whole bunch of ways you can run it.
Q:
You race several distances; what's your favorite race?
KW:
I'd have to say the 200. It seems like it's over faster. When you
get in the blocks, the truth of it is, it's all out from there,
driving to the finish.
Q:
What's your best 400?
KW:
47.1.
Q:
Why did you settle on the 800 today?
KW:
At this meet, I figure this is one of my better events. If I ran
one of my other events, I might not make it.
Q:
Is the 800 the most painful race you run?
KW:
That's true. Because there's so many moves you can make in it, it
gets really complicated. I guess a race should be complicated, because
it's a race, but in the 800, I need to get out hard for the first
150, you've got to watch the 200 meter mark, because you don't want
to be too far ahead, and you don't want to be too far behind or
get boxed in.
Q:
Do you look at guys in the senior race, like David Krummenacker
and Derrick Peterson, and the way they race?
KW:
Well, no, I really don't. Why should I pay attention to anybody
else's race? I watched Jonathan Johnson a few times, because I like
the way he runs. He has a couple of things I would fix about him,
but nobody's perfect. Mostly I watch my older brother, he runs for
Jackson State. I watch the things he does and the mistakes he makes,
because he's my older brother. I have to come up behind him and
make sure I don't make the same mistakes, and I can do a little
better than my older brother did.
(Interview
conducted June 24, 2005)
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Karjuan
Williams.
(Photo by Alison Wade/New York Road Runners)
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