The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

AS a two-time Austin Sealy award winner for being the most outstanding athlete, veteran sprinter Anthonique Strachan is encouraging members who will be selected to Team Bahamas to not allow the Oaktree Medical Center’s 50th CARIFTA Games to be their defining moment.

Instead, Strachan, who is still competing in various global meets on the senior circuit, is advising the Bahamian junior track and field athletes to use it as a stepping stone to bigger and better things in their future careers in the sport.

Eleven years after capturing her back-to-back Austin Sealy awards in 2011-2012, Strachan is still considered one of the top athletes to watch on the international scene. She is now training in Jamaica where she opened up her 2023 campaign with an impressive run in the women’s 100 metres in the 2023 Velocity Fest 12.

Representing the MVP Track Club in Jamaica, Strachan took the tape in 11.02 seconds to kick off her season in grand style, leading from start to finish in a race that saw Jamaica’s Jodean Williams finish second in 11.27 and Ranona Burchell third in 11.39. “I feel great about it. It let me know what I need to work on and I was able to discover that within the race,” Strachan said. “It just showed me that I am working towards something. I was sort of aiming to have fast turnovers. “I wanted to implement the things that I’ve been doing in training to bring to my race. I don’t want to be looking good in training and then when I get into the race, I don’t know why I am not performing the way I did it in training. I didn’t do it 100 percent, but it was achieved in my race.”

Based on her performance down the straight away of the Kingston National Track and Field Stadium, Strachan said she’s looking forward to the rest of the season where she will now concentrate on her specialty in the 200m. She’s expecting that her next race in a couple of weeks will be in the half-way event.

Strachan, however, opted not to reveal any plans for her season.

“I learned over time that some people could deter you from your goals, so it’s best to keep it to yourself and then you could focus on it,” Strachan stressed. “It could also possibly change, so I would prefer not to reveal it.”

With this being a rare back-to-back year for the

World Athletics’ World Outdoor Championships, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 that left the world in a frenzy, Strachan said she’s preparing to head to Budapest, Hungary this summer to represent the Bahamas as she did in Eugene, Oregon, last year.

But after falling short of getting into the 100m final last year with 10th place overall, Strachan said she’s healthy and in great shape, so the sky is the limit for her.

She also declined to give any indication of which event she will focus on this year, only to state that she will be ready to give it her best shot when the time comes.

With her training ongoing for her season, Strachan said she probably won’t be able to return home for the Bahamas’ ninth hosting of the CARIFTA Games over the Easter holiday weekend at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium.

But she sent a message to the athletes who are expected to make the team when the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations names the team today following the National High School and Final CARIFTA trials that wrapped up on Monday night.

“Just go out there and have fun and once you train for something, you don’t have to worry about it,” Strachan said.

“The work you put in, 90 percent of the time, that is what you are going to get out of it, so if they know within themselves that they were working towards something, then go for it.

“You don’t always have to medal. If you can get in a personal best or get a season’s best, progress is progress, so just be content with that and don’t get overly disappointed in yourself if something doesn’t work out.”

Strachan, a prime example of moving forward, expressed to the athletes that “this should not be the end of your season because I had seasons as a junior where CARIFTA was the only event that I went to. I started track in 2009 and in 2010, I was disappointed because I didn’t make the team.

“But in 2011, I came back and won my first Austin Sealy award in Jamaica. After 2010, I worked on things and I made it. That same year, I realised that there is more to my track career than CARIFTA. The next year, I won the Austin Sealy award and I went on to World Junior Championships.”

As a result of her performances, Strachan was named the female Rising Star of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, now known as World Athletics. A few years after that, she was sidelined with a series of injuries but, at the age of 29, Strachan is still going strong.

“CARIFTA is a building stage for track and field,” Strachan said. “So don’t give up just because things didn’t work out for you or how you think things should work out for you. Let this be a stepping stone to the rest of your career.

“Your job is to actually learn about yourself and when you learn about yourself, you can be mature about it and make wise decisions. Make sure you stay in communication with your parents, your coaches and your team-mates because they are there for you when you succeed and even when you fail.”

Once you as an athlete develop their confidence, it comes out in the performances.

That confidence, Strachan said, she’s seen in the Jamaican athletes and will be demonstrated here when they come to town to continue their dominance of the three-day meet, featuring more than 25 countries from around the region.

“Jamaica is by far head and shoulders above the rest of the Caribbean because they have the athletes and they have the performances,” she stated. “But that’s not necessarily our job to focus on what they are doing.

“If you are in lane one, focus on lane one and not what anybody else is doing. But I expect that Jamaica will have another dominating performance because their athletes are very seasoned and equipped.”

As the athletes’ representative for the BAAA, Strachan admonished the athletes on Team Bahamas to perform at the best of their ability, especially considering the fact that they are competing at home in front of the Bahamian public.

Strachan, a two-time national 100m and three-time 200m champion, is coming off a lifetime best of 10.98 in the 100m last year after running 7.17 in the 60m indoors. She also has a PR of 22.32 in the 200m that she ran in 2013. Additionally, Strachan has a best of 52.42 in the 400 metres that she posted in 2016.