Sprint kid sensation Jodie Williams finally saw her winning streak come to an end after the Brit was forced to settle for 200m silver at the World Junior Championships in Moncton, Canada.
The 16-year-old, competing in her sixth race in four days, crossed the line in 23.19 seconds as gold went to the USA’s Stormy Kendrick, who took the tape in 22.99.
It’s Williams’ first defeat in 152 races and she admitted the hype surrounding her, coupled with her intensive schedule in Canada, was to blame.
“I’m happy to be a medallist here and Stormy ran really well, I just couldn’t catch her,” said Williams, who has a personal best of 22.79, making her the fourth fastest junior in history.
“I had 12 hours sleep last night because I was absolutely shattered after the 100m; six races in four days is an awful lot and not having enough sleep the night before last wasn’t good.
“I think the expectation was way too much, but I did all I could.”
“I knew I’d have to run a hard bend – I wanted to run down the girl on my outside
“It’s been a long time. I knew it [the winning streak] would come to an end one day and that’s it, it’s come to an end tonight.
“I’ll be happy later on, but at the moment there’s still great shock at finishing second and losing my unbeaten run.
“It’s weird that all this winning streak stuff has come out now in the press and now I’ve got beaten, but that stuff happens.
“I’ve been training really hard to come here to win medals, and that’s what I did.”
“I want to go pro some time, but I’m still 16, I’m still young – a junior – but then I want to do this full time.
“Now I want to get some sleep. Once I’ve got over this I’ll be happy. I’ve got my GCSE results to get this summer.”
Williams has already clinched gold over 100m in Moncton and last year clinched victory over both distances at the World Youth Championships.
Emily Diamond, the other Brit competing in the 200m final, ran a solid race to finish sixth in 23.62.
“My legs died after the bend – I tried to get my legs to go fast but they just wouldn’t listen to me, but I’m happy, sixth is good, better than expected,” she said.
Meanwhile, there was disappointment for Jack Green in the 400m hurdles final and Dan Pembroke in the javelin as they finished fifth (50.49) and 11th (68.12m) respectively, although Green can take some comfort from a lifetime best performance in the biggest race of his career so far.