Tori Bowie is entered in both the 100m and 200m at the world track and field championships, but that doesn’t mean the triple Rio medalist will race both sprints.
“My team and I decided that I should just take each race one race at a time,” Bowie said Thursday, two days before she races in the 100m first round Saturday in London. “Depending on how I’m feeling after the 100m, try to go for the 200m as well.”
Bowie earned 100m silver, 200m bronze and 4x100m gold at her first Olympics in Rio, two years after switching from the long jump to full-time sprinting.
She has been focused on the 100m all season but also reached a goal in running a 200m personal best on May 27.
The 26-year-old won the 100m and finished third in the 200m at the USATF Outdoor Championships in steamy Sacramento in June. Afterward, an exhausted Bowie said she didn’t want to race both sprints at worlds.
“If I could choose, my preference would be the 100m,” Bowie said Thursday. “I actually think the 200m is my best race. It’s not my favorite race, but it’s my best race. You know, after I get through this 100m final, who knows. I think I’ll be motivated to try to go get a gold in the 200m as well.”
Bowie is ranked seventh in the world this year in the 100m, an event dominated by Jamaican Elaine Thompson, the Olympic champion who has won every 100m that she has finished since May 2015.
Bowie ranks No. 1 in the world in 2017 in the 200m with a time that would have won gold in Rio. Plus, Thompson isn’t racing the 200m at worlds, further boosting Bowie’s hopes. Should she decide to race the 200m.
Regardless of her event schedule, Bowie is going into her second worlds with a fresh mindset.
“A lot of times, I’ve come to the championships, and I was already focused on my competitors before I got a chance to run,” she said. “So I lost before I even got a chance. So, coming into this meet, I’m trying something different. I’m going to get on the line and zone out.”
The soft-spoken Mississippian said she feels no pressure. She’s not defending any titles. She feels extremely blessed with 2016, when her goal was simply to make the Olympic team and she came home with three medals.
“I don’t feel like I have a point to prove to everyone,” Bowie said.
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