Missing Rio final by one place has motivated sprinter Ella Nelson

If fourth is the worst place to finish at the Olympics, then ninth is hardly better, at least if you are a sprinter.

Ella Nelson trains on the beach in Rio de Janeiro during the Olympics. Picture: Alex Coppel.

If fourth is the worst place to finish at the Olympics, then ninth is hardly better, at least if you are a sprinter.

Ninth means you fell one ­agonising place short of reaching the Olympic final and the chance to run for a medal. Ninth sucks, at least initially.

That was Ella Nelson’s fate on her Olympic debut in Rio, to miss the Olympic final by one place and an excruciating 0.01 of a ­second, despite setting a personal best time of 22.50sec.

But it may eventually be the making of her.

As 22-year-old Nelson prepares to run her first 200m of the year at the Canberra Grand Prix meet tomorrow, she says her Rio experience “gave me all the motivation I need for the next four years’’.

“It was frustrating but more motivating than anything else,’’ she said.

Nelson describes the Olympic year as a “whirlwind’’, that began when she broke 23 seconds for the first time to qualify for the Games this time last year in Canberra.

“Every run and training session was completely new and I had quite a few injuries, so it was a big mental year,” she said. “It felt like a real battle within myself.’’

But she came out at the end ­believing that she could achieve “some really cool things in the sport’’.

Her ambitions for this year are clear. The first is to move up one place at world level and reach the world championships final in ­London in August but that is the minimum she hopes for.

“I like the number six, it’s my lucky number, my lucky lane, so I’d like to be in the top six,’’ she said.

And she also admits the Australian record is on her mind. Melinda Gainsford-Taylor holds the 20-year-old benchmark at 22.23sec, but Nelson is the fastest Australian since 2000 and she is determined to get faster after ­taking more than half a second off her best time last year.

She has spent the past few months at her training base with the Altis program in Phoenix, ­Arizona, working particularly on her sprint technique, her strength and conditioning and her acceleration in the first 50m of her race.

As a slightly-built sprinter she glides, rather than powers, through her race and her exceptional balance as she transfers from the bend to the straight has always been her strength, but she wants to bring the first part of her race up to speed.

She also wants to avoid the ­injuries that may ultimately have cost her a place in the Olympic final.

“I feel a lot stronger and more confident in my ability, that I am not going to break when I run fast and I’m excited to put it to the test,’’ she said.

She hopes to get the world championships qualifying time of 23.10sec out of the way with a minimum of fuss this weekend and then turn her focus to defending her national title in Sydney later this month. “I am really ­nervous — I always get really worked up before my first race of the season,’’ she said. “But if I can produce something similar to my first run last year (22.84sec) I will be really happy.’’

Canberra’s reputation as a sprinters’ paradise has drawn in most of the best in the land for the weekend grand prix.

Olympic 400m semi-finalist Morgan Mitchell is scheduled to run the 400m today and then back up to race Nelson in the 200m ­tomorrow.

Australia’s fastest man Josh Clarke will line up with Queensland challengers Trae Williams, Tom Gamble and Alex Hartmann in the 100m and Tasmanian teenager Jack Hale in the 100m today.

Young guns Kurtis Marschall and Angus Armstrong with square off in the men’s pole vault, while former world champion Dani Samuels will look to build on her outstanding start to the season in the women’s discus.

The men’s 800m tomorrow will also boast a strong field with national record-holder Alex Rowe, Rio Olympian Peter Bol, former national representative Josh Ralph, and new contender Jordan Williamsz.