‘NO LIMIT’

AFTER missing out on the team to the Paris Olympics last summer, 2021 Olympic bronze medallist Megan Tapper says she’s intent on proving her critics wrong and will make a statement at the Tokyo World Athletics Championships in September.

The 31-year-old had a decent showing at the Miami leg of Grand Slam Track over the weekend, after coming in as a last-minute replacement for Puerto Rico’s Olympic gold medallist Jasmine Camacho-Quinn in the women’s short hurdles.

Tapper, in her GST debut, clocked a season’s best 12.50 seconds for fifth in the 100m hurdles on Friday but returned on Saturday with a second-place finish in the flat 100m with a personal best 11.33 — behind fellow Jamaican Ackera Nugent (11.09).

Tapper’s effort in the 100m hurdles is her fastest time since September 2023 and also the fastest she’s ever gone at this stage of the year throughout her entire career.

She believes she can not only surpass her personal best of 12.44, set in July 2023, but shut down talk of her not being able to be a contender at the World Athletics Championships later in September.

“I feel great! [Clocking] 12.5 at the start of the season in May is spectacular for [me] so I’m definitely looking for more. I’m moving with audacity this year. A lot of people have been saying, ‘Megan won’t be in the mix because she hasn’t run 12.3,’ but don’t worry — it’s coming,” Tapper said.

“There’s no limit to what I can do. I’m taking off the blinders, taking off all the stuff people want to say [about] what I can achieve and just going out there, trying to do my best, and God will do the rest.”

Tapper also credited her support system for helping her to push through to this stage.

“At the end of the day I’m human and I get discouraged but somebody’s always there. God always sends somebody with a message, a word, something that uplifts me and keeps me going. At the end of the day I’m not just doing it for myself, I’m doing it to show that life is not just to live but to do your best, put your best foot forward, and [that] anything is possible,” she said.

Her two-day exploits at Grand Slam Miami mean she finished third overall and pocketed an impressive US $30000 ($4.7 million) — one of the biggest paydays of her career.

Tapper says she was happy to be given the call to be part of the new, lucrative event.

“It’s amazing, it’s exhilarating, and such an amazing opportunity for athletes. I mean, I get a little extra money in my pocket; I’m able to do and go a bit more and invest a bit more so I’m really excited about this Grand Slam,” she said.

“I’m so happy Michael Johnson had a dream, put it to work, and people believed in that dream [enough] to support track and field and [that] we’re coming [out]. It’s taking a bit of time to warm up to the excitement, but we’re getting there.”

The three-time national sprint hurdles champion, who opened her season in April last month, struggled with a hamstring injury in 2024 which contributed to her fourth-place finish at the National Senior Championships last June, meaning she was only a reserve for the Paris Games in August.

However, Tapper says she’s managing to overcome her setbacks and believes she will be a threat going forward.

“Training has been the most unusual I’ve ever done to this point of my career. If I was the type of person to really focus on the process and what I’m used to, I’d definitely be discouraged. But, as I said, I’m moving with audacity this year,” she said.

“I started sprint hurdling in February. My first hurdles session — which usually starts in October — was in January, and it was just slow hurdling. So, I’m literally just getting in my groove, getting into running, feeling like myself again, and if I get 12.5 now, the sky’s the limit.”

— Daniel Blake