Golden Gala Pietro Mennea: Melissa Jefferson-Wooden hoping to bring her training form onto the tracks

Five-time World Champion, Melissa Jefferson-Wooden has said that she hopes to replicate her training form tomorrow as she comes against a strong field in the women’s 200m at the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea in Rome, Italy tomorrow.

The pretty faced sprinter who virtually locked the world under her spikes in 2025, winning in every competition that she showed up told the press today that training has been fun and wished to replicate her training form tomorrow:

“The main thing is always be healthy, then if there are still some things left on the table is to just build up the best of your potential.

“Practice in training has been going great, this last month I have been able to really see my improvement not only taking the word of my coach but just being able to see it for myself.

“I want to stay in whatever moment that I’m in, but once I achieve the things that I have, I tend not to stay in those moments and I think that I got ready for what’s to come. That was my biggest lesson that I’ve learned and I’ve been having fun.”

Jefferson-Wooden will come up against Julien Alfred, Dina Asher-Smith, Anavia Battle, Amy Hunt, Favour Ofili, Jael Bestue, Elisa Valensin, and Helene Parisot.

The Georgetown [South Carolina] born sprinter won three world titles at the 2025 World Championships, capturing gold in the women’s 100m, 200m and 4×100 m. She’s the first American to do so and only the second woman to do so after Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce achieved in 2013.