Hayes’ season is all about timing

Four-time NCAA Division 2 champion at Livingstone College and 400-meter medalist at last year’s U.S. and World Indoor Championships looks to build off fast start this year, including American indoor 300 record and world-leading 400 in outdoor opener

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

The 400 meters has often been described as the toughest race in track, the ultimate combination of speed and power, the ideal showcase of physical strength and mental toughness.

The event has also been a metaphor for Quanera Hayes’ career, with this season focused on the four-time NCAA Division 2 champion at Livingstone College (N.C.) having the endurance to not only excel at the USATF Outdoor Championships in June in Sacramento, but compete with the best in the world in August at the IAAF World Championships in London.

It’s been a greater point of emphasis this year for Hayes and coach Derrick White, CEO of the Florida-based Life Speed Athletics, to construct a limited racing schedule with rest and recovery being significant priorities, especially after a stress fracture in her left leg hindered her pursuit of qualifying for the Rio Olympics at the U.S. Trials in July.

“She’s just doing all the right things this year. She’s really ramped up her professionalism. She’s sleeping right, she’s eating better and just has a stronger competitive edge, even with her teammates,” White said. “Everything is good, we’re just staying patient and staying in the progression. I don’t want her to run so much, but yet, have her so race sharp and ready for when it really matters.”

Hayes, 25, has been as impressive as any long sprinter in the world from January to April the past two years. She opened Jan. 7 by setting the American indoor 300-meter record 35.71 at the Clemson Orange and Purple Classic and backed it up Saturday with her world-leading 50.04 in the outdoor 400 despite strong winds at the Hurricane Alumni Invitational in Miami.

“I felt like my body was ready and I wanted to see what I could do,” said Hayes, who was just off her personal-best 49.91 from last April’s opener at the Chris Brown Bahamas Invitational.

“It was a blessing my coach was able to be there with me to be able to walk me through my first outdoor meet and having my body be at a place where it was ready to perform. It was a confidence booster because I train in windy conditions like that in Florida all the time, but to actually put it in a race was important.”

Those results, combined with last year’s success of winning the USATF Indoor title and capturing a bronze medal in the IAAF World Indoor Championships in the 400 meters, in addition to winning a world 4x400 relay gold in Portland, earned Hayes an invitation on the American roster to compete April 22-23 at the World Relays in the Bahamas.

“I have a lot of high hopes for USA Championships and Worlds, so to be chosen gives me a lot of confidence,” Hayes said. “It’s very empowering to know that they had only seen me run one race before (Miami) and they still wanted me on the team. Now, it’s all about putting together the proper training schedule to get my body back up to perform at World Relays.

“Derrick and I talk a lot about biomechanics and have very detailed conversations about my body to make sure I’m keeping the right posture and not twisting my arms to allow me to remain strong, especially in the last 100.”

Hayes’ strength early in the season hasn’t been in question, especially after she and eventual Olympic gold medalist Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas last year in Nassau became the first women to run under 50 seconds in the 400 in April since Marion Jones in 2000. Miller ran 49.69 to hold off Hayes at the Chris Brown Invitational on her way to edging Allyson Felix by a 49.44 to 49.51 margin four months later in the final in Rio.

But a nagging pain in her shin that began last year during indoor season eventually intensified to a stress fracture that resulted in her running just three races, including the 400 only at the Prefontaine Classic, in between her opener and the Olympic Trials.

“We didn’t know. We thought it was shin splints. We went to the doctor and were told it was severe shin splints, but it started then and just progressed until there was a crack,” White said. “One of the things that people don’t know about how special that was and what she did at the Trials, she hadn’t run on a track in eight weeks before the Trials. She couldn’t even jog the day before and she just went for it. It’s the Trials and she’d have to wait another four years, so she decided, ‘Why not give it my best?’

“By pushing beyond her injury, it gave her a confidence and a strength she didn’t know she had.”

After becoming the first female athlete to win the NCAA Division 2 title in the 400 three consecutive years in 2015, Hayes fed off that momentum to reach the final of the USATF Outdoor Championships in Oregon and place fifth, so it wasn’t a surprise to see her back in the championship heat of last year’s Olympic Trials.

But to place eighth when Hayes didn’t even know if she’d be able to run one race, let alone three consecutive days, was an example of the resilience and determination that could one day make her an outdoor national champion and global medalist to go along with her indoor achievements last year.

“I’ve learned how to fight through things, even when things are tough for me. When I was going through everything with my injury, I learned to fight and give it my all,” Hayes said. “To make the finals at the Olympic Trials was nothing but God’s will. I’m running for God, I don’t run for anybody else. I don’t run for time, I don’t run for recognition, I run because he has blessed me with a gift and I want to use it to honor him. Anytime I hit that line, it’s just me and him and that’s it.”

Despite the setbacks, Hayes and White have both remained strong in their faith and have taken a patient, cautious and humble approach since she returned to the track in October. Hayes has also benefited from the support of training partner Joanna Atkins, the 2009 NCAA Division 1 outdoor 400 champion at Auburn, who has contributed to gold medals on American 4x400 relays in 2014 at the World Indoor Championships and World Relays.

Atkins was also invited to compete on the 4x400 in her second World Relays, along with Phyllis Francis, Natasha Hastings, Ashley Spencer and Hayes.

“Joanna and ‘Q’ are duking it out at practice, but they are continuing to hit their target times,” White said. “In terms of her schedule and periodization, she’s ahead of last year. It’s a little scary to me, but she’s ahead of it without pushing and pressing and taking her body and putting so much on it so early. But the key is keeping her healthy.”

White was apprehensive about Hayes even competing indoors, instead focusing on Atkins, who placed second in 36.18 to Francis (36.15) in the USATF Indoor 300 final March 4 in Albuquerque, N.M., running the second- and third-fastest times in American history.

But after Hayes was consistently running under 36 seconds in her 300-meter splits in the weeks prior to the debut of Clemson’s new indoor track, White decided to enter her in the January meet, along with Atkins, who won the 200 in 23.31 and 400 in 53.26.

Not only did Hayes’ 35.71 smash the American indoor record of 36.25 set last year by Hastings, but she equaled the third-fastest all-time performance, trailing only the 1993 world standard of 35.45 set by Russia’s Irina Privalova and falling just short of the 35.69 run in 2012 by Jamaica’s Patricia Hall.

“It was a last-minute thing to go to that meet, but what we saw in practice, I told her you can run under 36 seconds and no American female has ever done that,” White said. “When I told coaching friends that she ran 35.14 in practice, they didn’t believe me. And I said, ‘Well then, we’re going to go to a meet and you’re going to see the electronic 35,’ and that’s what she did.”

Hayes was excited about the performance in her only indoor competition of the year, but her focus continues to be on peaking during the summer and making the U.S. roster to compete in London.

“I hadn’t even reached full training yet, so for that to happen that early was kind of a surprise,” Hayes said. “I’m enjoying it, but at the same time, I’m not thinking too much about it. I have a lot more to go and a lot more to give. It’s an accomplishment that I’m going to put in the books and move forward from it.”

Hayes has also continued to progress physically, learning before her outdoor opener that the bones in her leg had completely healed, allowing her to focus on improving form and posture with better positioning of her hips and feet.

“I’ve been dealing with that bone issue for over six years, so I really see it as a blessing,” Hayes said. “It’s the main thing that has been taking me out the past few years and last year, I was on the verge of breaking them. It’s amazing I was able to get this far and being able to monitor it like I did, so this has made things a lot less stressful and given me a lot more peace of mind.”

White also demonstrates a calmness in knowing that Hayes is only scratching the surface of what she can accomplish later in the year.

Her 49.91 last year in the Bahamas made Hayes the No. 18 performer in U.S. history, but White knows that she has the potential to become only the third American to break 49 seconds in her career and possibly challenge the 2006 record of 48.70 by Sanya Richards-Ross.

“Quanera is a gifted athlete and she’s nowhere near peaking. God willing, if she stays healthy and stays on the path, maybe this year or next year, she’s going to be very close to Sanya’s American record and that’s just what she’s doing at practice and the progression of what I’m seeing,” White said. “Those are just the development cues that she has put together, just listening and us working on breaking the 400 down and her body being able to feel that rhythm and she’s executing it. Her first 200 has gotten a lot better and so has her finish.

“When she ran 49.91, she said it felt like a prelim and she was scared to tell me she didn’t feel any lactic acid. It was so amazing to her, she was like, ‘Coach, I feel like I can run maybe a second faster because this was extremely easy.’ The progression of where her body is going, if you are not running under 49.2, you might be in trouble. I know I’m saying big numbers and some people might take some shots at me, but I’m being very honest.”

With as deep as the current American field is in the 400, Hayes knows that despite her past success and endorsement of her coach, she has to prove herself every time she takes the track in domestic or international competition. The next opportunity will be during her return to Nassau for the World Relays.

“It’s cool because I never thought I’d be in this position that I’m in. Look where I come from and now I’m here, sometimes it feels unreal to be where I am because I know a lot of people would love to be where I am,” Hayes said. “It’s still a shock to me when people come and talk to me or ask to take a picture with me because I’m still learning and I’m still trying to grow. It will forever feel new to me. The attention will always feel new, because it’s like ‘Oh my gosh, they’re talking to me.’”

As long as Hayes continues to remain healthy, White knows they’ll continue to talk about her throughout the year, especially if she enjoys the breakthrough he expects in Sacramento in June.

“She wants to really display the gift that God has given her, so they can see where her talent really is,” White said. “The one thing that is unique about Quanera is when the gun goes off, she’s a different person. She works hard at practice and she takes the constructive criticism and feedback, but when she gets into a meet, she just kind of gets into this little zone.

“If you ever watch Quanera, it’s like she’s not running. But inside, there is a storm going on, yet her face doesn’t show it. There’s something special about her, we just have to put it all together at the right time, which is U.S. Nationals and London.”