1 month ago
7
HAVING WON his first 400-metre national title on Sunday at the JAAA National Junior and Senior Championships, Rusheen McDonald is taking aim at 43.93 seconds — his own national record.
“I feel like I’m in a 43 [seconds] shape this year. I feel like I’m going to break my national record. I promise,” he said in a post-race interview with Inside Lane’s Lillian Okolie.
McDonald, who also goes by the moniker ‘Big Boy’, claimed he anticipated winning the national 400-metre title when he crossed the line first in a comfortable 44.89 fashion at the National Stadium.
He led Delano Kennedy, 44.91, and Jevaughn Powell, 45.08, across the line as they took the second and third positions, respectively.
A main feature of McDonald’s races throughout the rounds of competition was his celebratory gesture, asking for silence as he crossed the line.
He explained it was a message to his detractors, who had been publicly deriding his career and his place as one of Jamaica’s elite 400m runners.
“I’ve been going through a whole heap of obstacles. Sometimes, people on a whole, before I run, people bash me saying I can’t win Trials or it’s better I go to Türkiye and all these things, so I feel a way,” he said.
“Every round, I have to go harder and harder to shut up these people. I’m not trying to upstage my opponents or something like that, I’m just trying to do my best.”
He also explained that with the strong base of support he receives from the MVP Track Club, it is easy for him to remain focused on his career and ignore negative comments.
“In MVP, we block out negativity,” he said.
“We’re used to it, so in our surroundings we have people who motivate you, and we have a lot of teammates who motivate you, so I’m used to it.
“Sometimes, the negativity uplifts me or I don’t answer to any negative comments or something like that, or try to read any negative comments.”
Having secured his place on the Jamaican contingent to travel to the World Athletics Championships later in September this year, McDonald said the focus will now be on improving his times this season.
He plans to do so by competing consistently on the European circuit, hoping the constant competition will see him dipping below the national record which he set in 2015.
“This is the starting process. When I go to Europe, it is going to be a change in my environment and stuff like that, because every two days you’re going to run in Europe. So when I run in Europe, I can get a better time, so it helps me,” he explained.
“In Jamaica, we run every weekend. So every two days in Europe, the more you run, every time you get better and better, so the times drop.”
English (US) ·