Phillips

Fresh off a personal best at his last indoor outing in the 60m hurdles, Richard Phillips is looking to continue that trend, as he gets set to compete in his first IAAF World Indoor Championships this weekend in Istanbul, Turkey.

Phillips posted 7.69 last week at the George Mason University, his lifetime best and the second fastest time by a Jamaican so far this season. Andrew Riley leads the way with 7.53 but Phillips has not been in 7.6 shape since 2004 and believes he stands a fair chance to do something special in Istanbul.

"The goal is to do my best to get a medal, and that will obviously take a personal best performance for me to achieve this," said Phillips, clearly conscious of the task at hand. He will have to get the better of the likes of hurdling stars Dayron Robles and Liu Xiang, who are favoured for podium spots at the championships.

"I am definitely confident going into this indoor championships. I usually don't run indoors, but this year we felt it necessary to do so. A lot of other Jamaican hurdlers did not compete indoors this year, so I wouldn't read too much into my ranking in the event among Jamaicans, the real challenge will be this week, and I am looking forward to it," said Phillips.

competitive

"I will have to be quicker than that to be competitive in Istanbul. And yes, this is my quickest time since 2004 for indoors, and I'm just thankful for an injury-free season so far so I was able to achieve this," he added.

"I have been pleased so far with my performances, I have not competed a whole lot indoor, but the times have been decent," Phillips added. "I have been able to stay healthy and put in some positive work."

Phillips says he has been doing a lot of technical work to iron out the kinks in his hurdling technique coupled with considerable strength work, as he looks to approach the championships in the best possible condition.

"We have been working a bit on my trail leg flexibility and motion along with arm action over the hurdles and have stressed core strength a bit, which we will continue to do," Phillips shared.

The 28-year-old, who is scheduled to start competing on Saturday at 2:40 a.m., underlined his delight at being selected for the championships and is looking forward to once again representing Jamaica on the world stage.

"It is always a honour for me to represent Jamaica at all levels of competition and life, so I'm very happy to be one of the 11 selected to wear the colours once again," said the two-time Olympic (2004, 2008) and two-time IAAF World Championships in Athletics competitor.