By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WHEN the athletic (track and field) competition of the sixth Commonwealth Youth Games gets underway today in the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium, missing from Team Bahamas’ line-up will be sprinter Devine Parker.

The top junior sprinter in the country is nursing a quad injury that prevented her from competing at the IAAF Under-18 Championships last week in Nairobi, Africa.

As a result, she has also opted not to compete here this week.

Instead, she has shut down her season as she looks to get the injury properly healed.

“I’m trying to get the injury in order and not take a chance on running on it,” Parker said. “It’s an injury that keeps reoccurring so I’m trying to get some therapy for it and trying to get it sorted out.”

Rather than running on it and making it worse, Parker said she and her coach, Pauline Davis-Thompson, have decided that she will shut it down for the rest of the season.

In Nairobi, Parker was all geared up to contest the women’s 100 and 200m sprint double, but she said while going through her warm up, the injury flared up again, so she decided not to compete.

“I just have to trust God and just think long term,” she said. “I’m still disappointed because I would like to run, but it’s just been a bitter-sweet experience for me.”

When she advised by the Bahamas’ medical team in Nairobi that she won’t be able to run, Parker said she was disappointed, but she knew the inevitable would happen.

“I am still disappointed because I would like to run, but I can’t,” she stated. “I wasn’t getting any better. I kept trying, but it just inflamed and I knew when I was warming up that I couldn’t go.”

After watching the 100 and 200m from the stands, a disappointed Parker said she felt she could have been on the podium in both events, possibly as a gold medalist. Ay Mizgin of Turkey won the gold in the straight away race in 11.62 seconds and Talea Prepens of Germany was the gold medalist in the half-lap race in a personal best of 23.51.

Team Bahamas didn’t come home with any medal, although there were four finalists with Doneisha Anderson getting fourth in the women’s 400m in a PB of 53.59, Shaun Miller was fifth in the men’s high jump with 2.11m; Adrian Curry was sixth in the men’s 100m in 10.86 and Denvaughn Whymns got eighth in the men’s long jump with 7.20m.

“Everything happens for a reason, so I just have to trust God that something is bigger and better out there for me,” Parker insisted.

With athletics set to go today, Parker said she will be here to support her teammates and cheer them on as they go for gold, even though she will be sidelined with an recurring injury.