By any measure, 400m hurdler Lashinda Demus had a fairy tale 2002 season. While most student-athletes are happy to merely begin their adjustments to campus life, the California native, who turned 20 in February, ended her first year of college with NCAA, national junior and World junior titles, and the status of World junior record holder.

Hardly one to rest on her laurels, Demus, who was sought after by many colleges after one of the most successful high school careers ever, quickly picked up where she left off at the end of her first college year by winning the flat 400m at last month's NCAA Indoor Championships.

Running in the slower first heat of the two-race final, the University of South Carolina sophomore got out fast and reached the break first and held on for a “surprisingly” quick 51.79 indoor PR.

“I was surprised,” she said. “When it happened, I didn't care what place I was going to get. I said, 'If I get sixth, seventh or eighth, it doesn't matter because I ran fast and was ready to run in the 51s’.” Her clocking left her as the fastest American indoors this year, and eighth fastest in the world.

Now, with the indoor season out of the way, she can return to her 400m Hurdles specialty in which she set two World junior records last year. Ironically, the first time she lowered the record, to 54.85 at the NCAA Championships in Baton Rouge, shattering Leslie Maxey's 55.20 from 1984, Demus said she didn't know what the World junior standard was.

“I didn't know,” she said with a laugh. “It actually wasn't a concern. I was more concerned about winning and running a good race than a record. Because I really didn't know the time. I'm bad with that kind of stuff. It was a shock for me just like for everybody else. When (the crowd) heard it, I heard it too.”

Obviously, she was fully aware of the record a month-and-a-half later when she settled into her blocks for the final at the World Juniors in Kingston where she went even faster, 54.70, the ninth fastest 400m Hurdles time in the world last season.

“The crowds in Jamaica were great,” she remembers. “I think everybody should be able to run in that type of environment.”

Looking back, she admits to some surprise over her relatively quick jump to upper echelon of the world’s 400m Hurdles scene.

“Yeah, I was surprised, because I was a mid-year entry,” she said, explaining that she didn't begin school until the winter semester last year. “I didn't expect to do what I did, but I knew that I had the potential to do something. I ran 55.7 in 12th grade, so I knew I'd be somewhere in that range. With the training staff here you can't help but to improve.”

That training staff is led by Curtis Frye, among the most respected coaches in the world. Frye's regimen, coupled with near world-class teammates Tiffany Ross --4th in Kingston and the 13th fastest 400m hurdler last year-- and 2000 Olympian Miki Barber (South Carolina) offers a training environment as tough, if not tougher than some of their regular season competitions.

“Practice is like that actually,” she said. “There's very intense training here.” And, she added, fiercely competitive. “It's competitive in a good way, not a bad way.  We don't put each other down. We don't get mad if someone runs a faster time than one of us. We congratulate them. It's a good kind of competitive atmosphere.”

Besides her teammates, there are others to whom she can turn for guidance.  Indeed, with volunteer assistant coaches Allen Johnson, Terrence Trammell and Melissa Morrison, a strong argument can be made that Columbia, South Carolina boasts the finest concentration of hurdling talent in the world.

“We forget that they're world class runners sometimes,” Demus said of her Olympian training partners. “They're just like one of us here in training. Sometimes they don't want to work out just like we don't. It's fun.”

Despite her recent success in the flat 400 - she clocked 51.24 to win the SEC title a few weeks before taking third at the NCAA in 51.30 - the hurdles race remains her favourite.

“It's a more relaxed race,” she believes. “The flat 400 has more thinking involved.  In the 400 hurdles, you just have to jump over the hurdles. That's your main mindset in the race - getting over ten hurdles. In the flat, you have to think about passing this person, sprinting here, taking off at this point, relaxing there.”

She had little trouble accustoming herself to the full lap distance from the 300m race from her high school career. “Once you run them enough, you kind of get used to what pain your going to run into, and when you can run easily. It's coming. It's a natural thing now."

She has no particular time goals in mind for this season – “just to run faster than my times last year” - and said she'll be pleased to dip below the 54 second barrier. If she succeeds, she would become the first 20 year-old to do so.

A Media Arts major, Demus said she eventually wants to work in the film business as a producer, but for now, she's more interested in producing fast times. Emerging as one of the top full lap hurdlers in the US, Demus is already looking beyond her June NCAA title defence to the World Championships in August.

But before her Paris ambitions can be fulfilled, she can expect a strong challenge for her NCAA title. Raasin McIntosh of the University of Texas, who finished third behind Demus at last year's NCAAs, has already run 54.60. Demus posted a relaxed 56.33 on 5 April, a performance she didn't surpass last year until her first World junior record last year in the NCAA final.

“That's what we're shooting for, to make that team this summer. If it comes right, I should be on the team. But anything can happen.”

And she has complete confidence in Frye to get her there. “Coach Frye knows how to do that,” she said. “Just like I peaked at the right time indoors. I thought I was off the whole indoor season. I wasn't running fast at all. And I came down at the right time, so I think he knows what he 's doing as far as peaking and running fast at the right time.”