Anthony Foster, Gleaner Writer
Left: Australia's Jana Rawlinson. Right: Jamaica's Melaine Walker. - File
AUSTRALIAN TWO-TIME world champion Jana Rawlinson has warned Jamaica's Olympic champion Melaine Walker she would be ready for a challenge over the 400m hurdles next season.
Rawlinson missed the Beijing Olympics and most of the season with a toe injury, which kept her away from Walker, who had the season of her life.
In an interview with Star Sports last week, Walker said: "I was always geared up to defeat her (Rawlinson) at every meet that I went to but she never showed up.
"I always ended up winning but part of that was my determination to defeat her and I never had a chance to," added Walker. Rawlinson promised Walker that come next season she will get her wish.
"Next year we are going full gung-ho mainly because Melaine Walker has come out (and won the Olympic)," she said.
Nine clashes
"She said quite a lovely thing in one of the latest articles that's just come out - she's said she doesn't feel like she's the best until she's beaten me because we've had nine clashes in our life and I've won every one of them," Rawlinson was quoted on the IAAF website as saying.
"But she also put on the end of the article that she feels like I dodged her this year, so I'll race her in every race I can next year to make sure we get a good go on it," she said.
Rawlinson said Walker's comment about she never 'showed up' pumped her up.
"It also gives me a bit of fuel for the next few years if we've got a rivalry between us because clearly she has run quicker than I have, so I'm not ignorant enough to think that if I ran the same time I ran last year (in 2007) I would have won, so I need to make a stand."
Walker ran 52.64 seconds in Beijing for the Olympic record, which is substantially faster than Rawlinson's personal best of 53.22.
But, Rawlinson doesn't read much into that time. "I know the Beijing track was quick and I've got a lot more running in my legs, so it's just a matter now of trying to prove it," she said.
