Athletics: Williams not content with 200m mark

Monique Williams believes she is capable of sprinting still faster than her latest New Zealand 200m record at the world athletic championships in Berlin.

Williams further improved on her record in finishing third in her semifinal in 22.90s, six-hundredths of a second improvement on her time in the heats yesterday.

Muna Lee of US won the semifinal in 22.30s.

With just the first two and the two other fastest times from the three semifinals going through to the final, Williams needed to run 22.64s to claim one of the two other times.

The World University Games 200m champion in Serbia achieved a top 16 ranking, finishing 12th in the competition.

Williams broke on the first attempt to get the field under way, but had no problem with the second start.

The 23-year-old was over the moon coming off the track at the near-capacity Olympic Stadium in Berlin.

"It's pretty cool to call yourself 12th in the world," said Williams with a smile a mile wide.

"I think I was a bit eager to get away. It was definitely nerves that made me do that.

"I think my best bit was probably from 150 to 100, because I felt they caught up and I tried to catch the Russian girl on the outside of me. Once I did that I knew I'd be in quite a good position and I came home strongly."

It was mixed feelings for Williams as she crossed the finish line.

"At the end I was like 'Oh, I mean I just missed out on the final', but then I was just like, hold on a minute, I've achieved, if not more than, my goal of wanting to be top 16, and I'm 12. I'm just really over the moon."

Williams said it was the first time in her career where she had concentrated solely on one event for a competition.

"I really love running 200s and I hope I've proved to everybody that I can run them.

"I know I can go faster than that, it's the first time I've ever concentrated on racing in one event. I'm going to have to start concentrating on one only."