Sprinter sets the pace
Nickesha Anderson ran the top speed of 2008 on Feb. 16
A Jamaican native, Nickesha Anderson ran the fastest time for the year for the University of Kansas.
Thursday, February 21st, 2008
Junior sprinter Nickesha Anderson is arguably the fastest woman in the world right now.
Photo by Jon Goering
Junior sprinter Nickesha Anderson set the season for the 200-meter dash.
Feb, 16, at the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark., the Hanover, Jamaica native posted the this year’s fastest time run by any woman in the world for the 200-meter dash. It took her a mere 22.94 seconds to cross the finish line.
Anderson commented on her achievement. “My feeling is basically the same,” she said. “I have to go and repeat it again because one time doesn’t actually do it for me. I haven’t realized that I actually ran 22.94 (seconds) because it hasn’t hit me yet.”
Anderson was completely unaware that she had run the best time in the world for the year until later that night when she received a phone call from media relations worker Eric Dolan while sleeping.
“I had no idea that I ran 22.94,” she said. “Eric called me that night and he said, ‘Did you know you ran the world’s fastest time,’ and I was like, ‘No!’”
Running the year’s fastest time in the 200 is not what Anderson is most excited about. She said that up until last Saturday’s race, she had not run to her full potential.
“It wasn’t about me running 22.94, it was about executing the race properly,” she said. “22.94 was just a bonus for me.”
Anderson revealed one of the pre-race rituals that she performed before every meet. She said that whenever she saw a safety pin lying on the ground, she picked it up and placed it in her athletic bag. “They say that pins bring you good luck,” she said with a laugh. There must have been lots of pins on the ground that day.
Anderson’s domination in track stems all the way back to her childhood in a small parish of Jamaica known as Hanover, located on the Northwestern tip of the island.
Anderson grew up with her mother and four young siblings. Her fondest memories from her childhood in Jamaica are those related to track and field. Anderson said what the sport was like in Jamaica.
“Track put Jamaica on the map,” she said. “There are a lot of sprinters in Jamaica. A lot. It’s harder there to do track because everybody is a sprinter.”
Anderson credited her mother and grandmother for getting her involved in track and field. She said that they were both great athletes, but that she had let the sport take her the furthest.
Anderson first became involved in track during high school and let it take her to places like the National Junior World Championships. She immigrated to the United States from Jamaica in 2004 when she entered college at Missouri-Baptist University in St. Louis.
During her freshman year, Anderson competed in the Kansas Relays and was quite successful. It was during her 100-meter dash victory that Kansas head coach, Stanley Redwine first noticed Anderson.
He immediately began to recruit Anderson to come to Kansas. Anderson said that she gave the idea of transferring serious consideration, but was still undecided.
A year later, Redwine again offered her a position on the team and she accepted. “KU is a school that education-wise and sport-wise has a facility that I can really do well in,” she said.
Anderson’s debut at Kansas this year has been outstanding. She has broken the school record in both the 60-meter dash and 200-meter dash, not to mention several other facility records. On Monday she was named Big 12 Female Athlete of the Week.
Anderson credited her success this season to her teammates and coaches. “My team has been supporting me 100 percent,” she said. “We cheer for each other. It’s that cheer that gives us the driving force for us to go.”
After last weekend’s split meet performance at the ISU Classic in Ames, Iowa, and the Tyson Invitational, the Jayhawks can look forward to a weekend off from competition. The following weekend, however, will bring the Big 12 Indoor Championships in Lincoln, Neb.
Anderson talked about how the team needs to continue to push hard toward the conclusion of the indoor season.
“It’s just like I’ve said before to my teammates,” she said. “‘The race is not always for the swift, but is for those who endure it to the end.’”
—Edited by Samuel Lamb
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