Jeshua Anderson relaxed as he gets ready to race in Daegu...

DAEGU, Korea--While awaiting the competition Saturday night at the IAAF world track & field championships, I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Washington State University assistant coach Mark Macdonald and his prize prodigy Jeshua Anderson (left/photo by Paul Merca), the three-time NCAA 400 hurdles champion and reigning USA champ.

Anderson talked a little bit about his experiences in China a few weeks ago, where he won the 400 hurdles title at the World University Games before arriving in Daegu last Monday.

He said that competing in Shenzhen has helped him acclimate to the time in Korea, with China an hour behind.

Anderson is confident about his prospects in the 400 hurdles, where he'll face the likes of teammates and world champ Kerron Clement, two time Olympic champ Angelo Taylor, and former world champ Bershawn Jackson, in addition to LJ van Zyl of South Africa, among others.

Anderson, who is a finalist for the USTFCCCA's Bowerman Award for the best collegiate track and field athlete of the 2011 season, will run in the first round of the intermediate hurdles Monday at 11:25 am, local time.

After Daegu, he will run in at least two meets on the European circuit, most notably the Van Damme meet in Brussels, the final stop on the Samsung Diamond League tour.

One of the most revealing parts of our short conversation with the duo was the news from Macdonald that 2009 US national heptathlon champion and former Washington State All-American Diana Pickler, who was training in Manhattan, Kansas and Austin, Texas, is returning to Washington State to train under WSU head coach Rick Sloan.

Pickler said on her blog that the reason why she's returning to Sloan in hopes of making her second straight Olympic team is that, "I have just felt in my gut some things just haven’t been right. I have challenged it and actively searching  for it but finally took control, and rinsed away everyone else’s thoughts and am fully doing what I want this next year.  Getting back to what I love.  The love of what I did was sucked out of me and with a bit of time away this love has blossomed into a whole different kind of beast."

Pickler will be a part-time volunteer coach for the Cougars as she was when she made the 2008 Olympic team, but will focus her energies into making a return to the top in the heptathlon.

You can read Pickler's blog here...