Gold medal favourite Sally Pearson reckons she has the fear factor on
her side in the final countdown to the world athletics championships.
The Australian sits atop the year's 100m hurdles rankings with a personal best of 12.48 seconds set last month in Birmingham.
She
has won all four Diamond League meets she has entered, claiming the
scalps of leading American challengers Kellie Wells and Danielle
Carruthers along the way.
Pearson is in a very good place, happy
to embrace the status of gold medal favourite at the world titles which
begin on Saturday in Daegu, South Korea.
"It's nice to think you
have something over them, no matter whether that's physically or
mentally," Pearson, 24, said on Wednesday.
"It's nice to know
that coming into these championships, they haven't beaten me and it's
probably going to be more scary for them than it is for me.
"… I always say that I'm really good at being the chaser and not really good at being chased, it's not what I'm used to.
"But I think I'll take on the challenge really well, I'm happy to be the favourite.
"These girls haven't been able to beat me yet so more pressure would be on them to get things right on the day and beat me.
"But I'm one step ahead of them."
Australian
head coach Eric Hollingsworth has singled out the 28-year-old Wells as
the pick of the Americans, saying she is the only one who can
potentially match the Australian for raw speed.
"But I would
still be saying Sal would be the favourite and the confidence of beating
them all regularly is certainly a big thing going into a
championships," said Hollingsworth, who revealed that the US hurdlers
now refer to the famously-combative Pearson as "the fierce white girl".
Pearson burst onto the global scene with a shock silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
A year later, she was fifth at the world titles in Berlin after being cruelly hampered by a back injury.
Last
year's Commonwealth Games in Delhi brought massive disappointment in
the flat 100m – when she was belatedly disqualified for a false start
after crossing the line first – followed by the elation of winning her
pet event.
This time around, the planets seem to have aligned perfectly.
"My
whole plan after the Commonwealth Games was to get in solid training,
look after my body and really listen to it, to do what I need to do as
an athlete," she said.
"So far everything has been going really well.
"All of my training sessions have been amazing and the results have been really good as well.
"I've been really consistent, winning all of them."
Getting the winning part down pat, Pearson now has to master the waiting.
Unlike
close friend and reigning discus world champion Dani Samuels – who is
straight into action in Daegu on day one on Saturday – the 100m hurdles
doesn't get under way until September 2.
"I'm a person that can be quite impatient. I just want to get the job done as quickly as possible," said Pearson.
"I'm so jealous of Dani getting her event on day one.
"… I'm excited to race, I can't wait.
"I
guess that I have to have another learning curve and that is to be
patient, to make sure I don't get too excited, too early, and waste too
much energy."
