Shevon Stoddart.

After a few seasons of being hampered by injury 400m hurdler Shevon Stoddart is confident that she can secure a place on Jamaica's team to the World Championship in Daegu, South Korea.

When the women take the track at 8:25 p.m. tonight for the 400 metres hurdles final those contesting this event will know that there are only three openings up for grabs. They will all be hoping to join Melaine Walker who a got a bye in the event, based the fact that she won the event in 2009 at the Berlin World Championships.

Although the field will include the country's number one-ranked athlete and world number two, Kaliese Spencer, who has a season best of 53.45 seconds done at the Prefontaine meet, Stoddart is very optimistic about her chances of puling off a major upset.

"I am really excited about the final today," Stoddart told Star Sports, minutes after going through her cooling down exercises process yesterday morning. The athletes were told that the event would be a straight final due to only eight athletes showing up for the preliminary round.

"The past two years have been very challenging for me. I am coming off an injury and I am glad to be getting back on track," she said.

Stoddart, with a season best of 57.27 seconds done in Walnut, California, in mid-April, is the sixth-ranked athlete in the event tonight, however, she is not worried by her time going into today's final.

"I feel I can get a good race today as I am getting back my rhythm, although I was out longer than I had expected I am extremely confident that I can do something special this evening," she continued.

Stoddart also pointed out that when she made it to the Olympic Games in 2004, she came to the National Championships with a slow time.

"In 2004 I was not ranked highly coming to the trials but I was able to do well and qualify. I know that this is a National Championships and I did not come here to finish less than first and I am happy that I am healthy. I did not come here to run fourth because if you do that you'll miss the plane."