LEIGHTON LEVY, STAR Writer

Last week when Sherone Simpson won gold in the 100 metres in 10.95 seconds at the Pan Am Games in Canada, it was the first time she was winning an individual championship gold medal since her victory at the Commonwealth Games in 2006 and her first sub-11 time since 2008.

As she resumes preparations in pursuit of further glory in Beijing next month, her coach, Maurice Wilson, believes she can improve and go faster.

Wilson, Simpson's coach since late 2014, said when she came to him, she was an 11.5/23.4 athlete, so the plan was to get her to make incremental improvements. She has progressed at a much faster rate.

"I am very excited," said Wilson.

"I had some projections as I was trying not to get too carried away," he added of his first sub-11 female sprinter.

Now that she has returned to training, it is back to basics, working on some technical errors and cues that he thinks will enable her to go even faster.

"They should make a difference," he said.

Improvements

With the aforementioned improvements, notwithstanding the fast times being produced by the elite women sprinters of the world, Simpson could become a factor in the 100m.

"You have to consider her in the 100m because once you are in the finals, anything is possible," he said.

Back in 2006, Simpson was the fastest woman in the world in both 100m and 200m, but two knee surgeries significantly slowed her, and not even the world-renowned skill of her, former coach Stephen Francis could get her back to being her best.

Wilson credits his success to his willingness to always learn new things and taking a softer approach to how he coaches the veteran athlete.