The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

NOW that she’s done with the surgery for a “sports hernia,” sprinter Anthonique Strachan said she’s eager to get back on the treadmill and start her training again so that she can be ready to compete at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Strachan, 22, had surgery on Monday in Birmingham, Alabama, and she is now recuperating at her home in Auburn, Alabama.

“It went very well,” said Strachan in an interview with The Tribune yesterday. “I don’t know how long it took. I remember going in and I remember coming back home. I feel better now, but some of the drugs that they gave me, I could feel it getting me drowsy, so I try to use it less, so I can be more of myself.”

Strachan was forced to have the surgery for the sports hernia - a strain or tear of any soft tissue (muscle, tendon, ligament) in the lower abdomen or groin area - after she experienced a lot of pain in the aftermath of her pull out of the women’s 200 metres at the Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada, in July that subsequently led to her missing the 15th IAAF World Championships in Beijing, China, in August.

“I would prefer to do it now than to wait until January or postpone it and the same thing that happened at Pan Am happens again because I can’t afford another hiccup like that,” said Strachan of not competing. “I live and breath track and field. I would do anything to run. Even if I lose, I would like to know that I lose and I had an option, than to know that I go into a race and I have no control of what happens.”

Now that the surgery is done, Strachan said her goal is to get healthy again so that she can compete again.

“I’m more motivated than ever because I don’t have anything to prove to anybody,” said Strachan, one of the top sprinters in the country. “I just want to be able to show that last year, it wasn’t me that didn’t get to compete, but that I had to deal with an issue to get back to the level that I was at and that my coach Henry Rolle isn’t wasting anytime on me.”

She has been given about 6-8 weeks to be properly healed, but Strachan said she’s looking forward to testing her ability to at least walk on the treadmill this weekend. “It’s just a little difficult getting in and out of bed right now, but I can still do a lot of things for myself, so I know that I will be okay,” she said.

In the meantime as she goes through her rehabilitation, Strachan said she will be back at classes at Southern Union Community College where she is studying computer science.

The former CARIFTA standout and 2011 Austin Sealy winner as the most outstanding athlete while attending St Augustine’s College, was a double gold medallist in the 100 and 200m at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Barcelona, Spain in 2012 before she claimed the 200m gold and the 100m bronze medals at the Pan American Junior Championships in Miramar, Florida.

Strachan has secured a silver in the 200m at the CAC Games in 2011 in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, where she also ran on the women’s 4 x 100m relay team that clinched a bronze. In 2012, Strachan was awarded the Female Rising Star Award at the IAAF’s Athletes of the Year gala awards banquet in Barcelona, Spain.

However, she has yet to reach the next plateau, which is to win a medal, individually or as a member of a relay team, at either the IAAF World Championships or the Olympics. But Rolle said he expects that, after surgery, Strachan will be at full strength and get back on track to attaining those goals.