Getting to the top is hard enough but staying there is an even greater challenge. And so it could be argued that tonight's World Championship 400m victory by Tonique Williams-Darling is even more remarkable than when she struck Olympic gold a year ago.

　　Coming off the final turn the 27-year-old from the Bahamas held off the attack of both Sanya Richards (USA) and the reigning World champion Ana Guevara of Mexico displaying a hunger that perennial champions must have.

　　"I would say that being able to pull off the Olympic title and then come back a year later and pull off the World Championship title has just been a roller coaster experience for me,"she revealed. "It's really an historical moment for me and for the Bahamas, just to be able to do something like this. And so I feel really humbled and grateful and just overjoyed right now."

　　"It is not an easy experience. I will tell you, definitely, that in the off-season it was just a struggle to go out there every day and practice because coming off the Jackpot races and after the Olympics experience you are just kind of worn out mentally. It's not even physical. So you just go with the season, and work through it, and by the time, like two weeks away from this competition, I was hungry again and ready to be competitive."

　　Williams-Darling credits a support group of friends and family, her husband Bahamian 400m runner Denis Darling, with keeping her grounded when the natural tendency would be to celebrate and then rest on one's laurels. Most importantly she credits her Christian faith.

　　"I am a baptist ," she reveals. "I belong to a church in Hampton, Virginia. And it has really been the source of my spiritual foundation and just my faith that if I put everything in God that He will help me through. It's not even a matter of winning medals or whatever just a belief that I can do all things through Christ."

　　Articulate and unassuming, the Nassau born runner attended the University of Georgia before finishing her business degree at the University of South Carolina. Meeting present coach Steve Riddick himself a former outstanding sprinter, has been the turning point of her career however.

　　"I met him at a track meet in 2000 he used to coach members of the Bahamas team in the 2000 Olympics," she says of the 1976 Olympic 4 x 100m relay gold medalist. He has helped her to not only to fame but to fortune. A year ago she won $500,000US as a share of the TDK Golden League Jackpot. Her Helsinki victory is worth $60,000 US alone. But it is not riches that motivate Williams-Darling.

　　"My life has changed a little bit (since winning the Olympics) but as far as the competition and training it hasn't changed that much," she declares. "One thing I have tried to do is train like I have never won anything before. And I think that was achieved because I could have been lackadaisical and blown off the season or whatever. I just stayed in there and knew that everybody else was coming after me. That really helped me to stay motivated this season."

　　She laughs when asked how she will celebrate this evening's victory. A party in one of Helsinki's famous nightclubs? Dinner with well wishers? Certainly a late night, right?

　　"How do I celebrate? For me celebrating is, like, sleeping because I never get to sleep before I race," she says laughing. "And so I don't know I think I am really going to really relax tonight. It's just me I am kind of boring."

　　None of her family is here in Helsinki They are celebrating for her back home in the Bahamas and from here she will continue on the European circuit before heading home for a quick visit with her family. It will be October at the earliest before she sets foot on home soil again.

　　"Well, you know, track and field is almost like a year round thing so I am always in the states for training during the competition year," she explains.

　　"I try to go back and forth as much as possible to visit my family - maybe four or five times a year - but it is always just for four days here, five days there, a holiday, whatever. Hopefully in the future I will get to relax at home a little bit more."

　　"Actually my mum comes to all my major competitions but she wasn't able to come to this one. But I spoke to her yesterday and I spoke to everybody in my family and they told me not to come home without the gold. So I think they will be really pleased tonight."

　　Indeed, they will be, for she has made the journey to the top and she has stayed there.