Love for Butter Chicken, Room for Improvement and a Break: Bahama's Charisma Taylor Clinches Hurdles Crown with Charismatic Performance | Exclusive

Bahamian hurdler Charisma Taylor delivered a charismatic performance to win the women's 100m hurdles at the World Athletics Continental Tour Silver Meet in Bhubaneswar on Saturday (August 22).

Clocking 12.96 seconds at Kalinga Stadium, the 26-year-old edged Japan's Yumi Tanaka (13.04s) and India's Asian Games silver medallist Jyothi Yarraji (13.24s) to secure gold.

Taylor, who holds a personal best of 12.63 seconds set at the 2024 Paris Olympics, arrived in India with clear intent.

A versatile athlete who also competes in the triple jump (Bahamian record 14.88m), Taylor used the Silver-level meet to sharpen her form ahead of major competitions. Her victory added an international highlight to India's first-ever Continental Tour Silver event and underscored her consistency on the global stage.

And after her fantastic performance, Taylor spoke with MyKhel at the Kalinga Stadium, depicting her thoughts on the achievement.

"I'm very happy actually. It's my first official meet for the outdoor season. I've had a lot of injuries this year. So I'm just happy to get out there and do well and run fast."

Although it was a good outing for Taylor, she knows there is much room for improvement as she marches along the way.

"I definitely want to improve my start. And I definitely want to improve the quickness in between the hurdles and then the last part of the race."

The Bahamas athlete is now set to take a break, as this event was her final one for this calendar year. And the win has provided a much-needed confidence in her.

"It has definitely this has given me a lot of confidence, especially coming from the year that I've had. So I'm just confident going into next year, ready to get to it."

Although it was her first time in India, the hurdler says she definitely looks forward to coming back. Along with her love for Indian cuisine such as Chicken Tikka and Butter Chicken, she also hailed the crowd in Bhubaneswar, who came in numbers.