The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia..net

BEIJING, China — In contrasting results, national champion Adanaca Brown and national record holder Devynne Charlton made their global debuts in the women’s 100 metre hurdles at the 15th IAAF World Championships.

Yesterday, Brown was the first to come out in the Bird’s Nest for seventh place in her heat in 34th place overall, while Charlton followed in the same position in her heat in 13.16 for 27th place.

An overwhelmed Brown got left in the blocks and never recovered, while a more confident Charlton got off to a great start, but slowly slipped in position as she neared the finish line.

“My start was totally off, I can’t even explain,” said an emotional Brown as she tried to hold back the tears.

“Maybe it was the adrenaline pumping. I don’t know what it was. I felt ready when I warmed up.

“For my first World Championships, I feel very, very disappointed, but this will only make me stronger.”

Coming into the stadium, Brown said she couldn’t believe that she was on the global stage and it got to her. She apologised to the Bahamian public for letting them down.

“This is my first worlds and I’m excited and just glad that I’m here and was able to compete without any injury or anything,” she said. “But once my start is off, that’s it. I can sometimes usually catch up. But once I don’t catch up by the third hurdle, for me the race is over.”

With the jitterbugs out of her system now, 21-year-old Brown said she can now concentrate on coming back for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she hopes to turn things around.

Charlton, on the other hand, got a great start in her heat but by the time she got into the middle of the race, she started to lose her composure and eventually the more experienced runners started to take over. Her heat was won by American Dawn Harper-Nelson in 12.79.

“I had a good start, but coming down the end, I sort of lost it when I broke my momentum,” Charlton said. “It’s been a good experience, just getting exposed to this type of competition and getting ready for next year.”

With the long wait to compete in the championship, Charlton admitted that she was more anxious to run, especially after watching Jeffery Gibson pick up the first medal with his bronze in the men’s 400m hurdles.

“That was pretty cool to see and it made me more fired up to run,” she said.

The Purdue University standout, who has had an exceptional year in college, said the one valuable lesson she has learned from this experience is not to take anything for granted.

“I had a pretty good college season and so I pretty much used that to prepare me for this,” said Charlton, who also got a chance to share the experience here at her World Championship debut with her family.

Although the 19-year-old acknowledged that she was a bit “nervous,” Charlton said she didn’t want to let it get to her, considering the fact that she had some tough competitors to face.

“I know that everybody was bringing their A game, so I had to bring mine as well,” she said. “It’s definitely motivation seeing that I can come here and do what I’ve done for my age. I know that two years from now at the next World Championship, I could be in a much better position.”