JESSICA Judd’s coach wants her to take “every ounce of experience” out of her World Championships debut in Moscow tomorrow.
The 18-year-old running sensation from Canvey will cap a whirlwind season by competing in the 800m at her first global senior championships.
Coach Rob Denmark is not setting any targets for his protegee other than for her to soak up the experience of what will be the biggest test of her life.
“I just want her to get every ounce of opportunity and experience out of this and want to keep coming back to championships like this more and more,” said Denmark, who is no stranger to World Championships himself, having made his debut over 5,000m as a 22-year-old in Tokyo in 1991.
“It will be like nothing she has experienced before. She will have to deal with a lot of outside stimuluses which she won’t have been used to before and things that you have to make sure don’t affect your performance.
“It will be great and really exciting but Jess has to go through the processes she does before any other race. It’s still two laps around the track and she will be up against people much better than she is at the moment.
“She has to compete as well as she can, hopefully for three rounds. But every person in the field will be as good, if not better than her.
"That’s the difference and that’s what she’ll never have experienced before. She will develop so much from the experience and we can build on it and take it on from there.”
Judd’s rise to prominence this season has been spectacular.
The national media made her athletics’ golden girl after she won at the European Team Championships for Great Britain on her senior debut before she won her first Diamond League in Birmingham a week later.
“There have been some things that are out of your control that have got a bit, well, out of control,” said Denmark.
“It’s been a real eye-opener but that’s good. When someone comes along like Jess, who is unique in the way she runs races, the way she looks with her hair and everything about her, let’s just say she doesn’t run boring races. People like that.
“She has been through a year’s worth of development in about two weeks in that regard. But it was always going to cool off. She wasn’t always going to run quicker and she wasn’t always going to keep on winning.”
Ironically, what appeared at first to be a real concern may have turned out to be a blessing for Judd.
A calf injury suffered in the build up to the World Championship trials affected her performance as she lost her first 800m race of the season and that meant she had to take several weeks out of competition.
The injury has healed well according to Denmark and that spell out of the limelight has returned a touch of normality to the teenager’s life.
“She has dealt with everything incredibly well this season,” Denmark added.
“It’s been remarkable.”
>Judd’s heat is from 6.55am tomorrow morning. It will be screened live on BBC2.
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