KELLY-ANN BAPTISTE: Not shying from the spotlight

<p> <em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana; text-align: left; ">All roads lead to London in 2012. Each athlete&rsquo;s path is different. Each includes an important pit stop in New York at Icahn Stadium on June 9. The adidas Grand Prix and Milesplit bring you the story and the journey of four world-class athletes as they make their way through the biggest and brightest city in the world, headed toward the Olympic Games. For more information on the adidas Grand Prix, visit&nbsp;<a href="http://adidasgrandprix.com/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(172, 35, 58); ">adidasgrandprix.com</a>. Check out the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.milesplit.com/articles/series/150-adidas-grand-prix-elite-interviews" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(172, 35, 58); ">rest of the videos in the series on Milesplit</a>, which will be posted one per week leading up to the adidas Grand Prix.</em></p>

 

Kelly-Ann Baptiste is admittedly a shy person. Yet the 100-meter star, representing Trinidad and Tobago, is doing all she can to remain in the spotlight.

“I think in my event, especially, if you’re not really in it to win the thing then you start off on the wrong foot,” she said. “Obviously, I would like an Olympic gold medal. If I don’t get that, any color would be fine.”

Baptiste earned bronze at the last year’s World Championships and currently owns the second-fastest time in the world this season in the 100 meters (10.86). Baptiste is atop a growing field of dynamic short sprinters that will be on display at the adidas Grand Prix June 9 at Icahn Stadium in New York that including Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Americans Carmelita Jeter, the top-ranked sprinter in the world last year, and now Allyson Felix.

The pressure of a jam-packed field doesn’t quite bother the Tobago native though. That prospect pales in comparison to Baptiste’s position as already the most successful female sprinter to ever represent Trinidad and Tobago.

“When I see Jamaica, who carries on the tradition of Merlene Ottey and Veronica (Campbell) and all those people, they have someone to look up to. So for me, my goal is always to create that environment for the female athletes in my country. I have always taken it upon myself as a responsibility even before I had to bronze medal.”