Anna Cockrell After Setting World Lead in 400m Hurdles
Anna Cockrell After Setting World Lead in 400m Hurdles FloTrack's #DiamondLeague and #ZurichDL coverage presented by On and Fleet Feet
Video Transcript
Meet record season's best.
Yes.
I, I mean, like, how are you feeling right now after this?
I'm feeling like it's Virgo season, and I'm a Virgo.
Virgo energy.
No, I feel good.
I, I knew we had this level of racing.
It was really just a tactical, a tactical battle.
Like, I told Coach Boogie after last week, this race was easier when I had fewer tools, 'cause there was just one way to do it, and we were gonna do it that way or not do it.
But now there's so many different things we've worked on.
There's so many new things that I've gotten good at.
There's so many different stride patterns we can do, that it's almost, like, paralysis by analysis sometimes.
So I was really happy to just go out there, to execute the race plan he wanted me to execute, to run my race, and to be really aggressive and just get it done.
I think that was the biggest difference from last week to this week.
Not waiting, doing my thing.
I think I do my best racing when I get after it the first 200, and that's what I did today, and I'm, I'm happy with it.
If you watched last week, big error at 10.
So it was two really, two things we needed to focus on, getting aggressive the first 200 and staying dialed in, staying composed at 10, and running through the line.
Amazing.
Last time I saw you was at USAs, and you guys, and you told me you guys haven't even started speed work for real.
Yeah.
So where's that right now?
We started speedwork.
But no, we've just been dialing it in.
Like, I know this is technically an off year, but we've really used it as a year to get experimental, to try new things, to figure out how are we gonna run this race, what's my best version of this race.
And, we started speed work, which I'm so happy about because Lord knows I hate tempo, I hate aerobic work, but, you gotta eat your vegetables to get to dessert, and I feel like we're finally at dessert.
So what have you tried that's new, and what's kinda working for you as you're piecing stuff together- Ooh, I gotta keep some things close to the ve- But, no, different stride patterns.
I mean, I'll, I'll wait till the end of the season to go in depth, but there, if you look at my Instagram comments, there are some eagle-eyed people who are figuring it out, which is fine.
I'm not mad at them.
But just different, different step patterns, different legs.
I hurdle pretty efficiently on my dom side and my non-dom side.
So it's really just about which leg makes the most sense at which point in the race.
Where do we wanna be at seven?
Where do we wanna be at hurdle one?
I've taken hurdle one on the, I've taken it on my left side, I've taken it on my right side.
I've taken 23 steps, 22 steps, 21 steps.
So we're just plugging and playing in all these different things and really finding what makes the most sense.
I think today was a big, big step, but I know Coach Boogie's gonna have about at least three things he wants me to fix going into the final.
I've got a couple things I need to see.
So we're gonna talk it out.
I'm excited today.
We're gonna celebrate today, and then we're gonna let it go and get ready for the next one.
And I think that's been the name of the game for me, is whether it's a win and it's the best race of my life, or it's a loss and I'm unhappy like I was last week, we look at it, we think about it, we analyze it, and then we move on and get it done the next time.
And then, and then what do you think this race, like, what does it do for your confidence?
I mean, it's validation.
I think that sometimes in this sport, you work really, really hard, and you don't always get the result.
And it's frustrating because you're like, "What was all the work for?"
And I think that's really how I felt last year, where I'd been putting up some of my best practice numbers.
I was doing things I'd never been able to do, but the race just wasn't coming together.
And so to have that same feeling of I'm training hard, I'm training smart, things are looking good, and then get the time, it's, it's huge validation that we're on the right track, we're doing the right thing, and we just need to keep doing what we're doing and trust it.
And then what does practicing patience look like for Anna?
Because we all know this sport- Oof can be so unforgiving.
Um- You can be doing everything right, like you were saying, and then shit doesn't piece together at competition.
Yeah.
So, like, in those moments where it, like, kinda sucks- What do those conversations, like, look like maybe between you and your support system?
Yeah.
I mean, sometimes I think there are more moments that suck than moments that are like this one, and it's really about having the resilience to believe that it's gonna come back around.
And we talk a lot about 2024.
For me, that was a big breakout year.
There were so many things that went wrong that year.
Like, it felt like every three months something went wrong, and then we just had to bounce back and bounce back and bounce back.
And I think I, my parents, my siblings, my fianc, Coach Boogie, Coach Carol Smith-Gilbert, Carol Lawrence, like, I have so many people that are just constantly pouring into me and telling me, like, who I am in the sport and outside of the sport.
And I think as much as I love this, and I'm grateful, and this is my job and my dream, this isn't all there is to me.
And so I'm very grateful that no matter what goes right or wrong, I've got a lot of people who are like, "You are great no matter what."
My brother and I had a long conversation after Lausanne, and he was just like, "You are so special, and believe in that."
And I'm, I'm very grateful for that.
This is so random, but I wanna give a big, big, big, big, big shout-out to Monsignor and Karen from Louisiana, who be praying for me more than anybody else, puts me in the church bulletin.
Monsignor, oh my God, thank you.
Um- Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa It's just, you Is that a world record?
I don't know.
No, that's, I think it's farther.
I don't think- Holy sm- Oh, my.
Well, you know what, we gonna wrap it up 'cause I got some work to do.
Shout-out to everybody that loves me.
Let me go cool down and talk to my coach.
Congratulations, Anna.
Thank you.
