By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMIAN sprinter Anthonique Strachan was gearing up for her fourth Olympic Games appearance this summer before her season was ultimately derailed by an inopportune season-ending injury back in May.

Strachan discovered hairline fractures in the shins of both of her feet and has spent the last three months rehabbing the injury.

The 2017 World Relays gold medallist shed some light on what the recovery process has been like for her the past few months.

“It is actually going pretty well. My legs basically healed way faster than what we anticipated but that’s about it. I have already been rehabbing. I have started some slow training but I am not going to do anything physically on the track until mid to late next year. Right now it is just the treadmill and the pool. Mainly, the boost treadmill which takes the body weight off the legs,” she said. 

The 31-year-old was expected to team up with Bahamian Olympians Shaunae Miller-Uibo, Steven Gardiner and Alonzo Russell in the mixed 4x400m relay event at the 2024 BTC World Athletics Relays earlier this year. 

However, she felt it was unsafe to compete as a result of  nagging pain in her shins due to an injury suffered during the indoor season.

After opting not to run at the World Relays, Strachan was advised by doctors to shut it down for the season.

Before the untimely injury, Strachan posted a season’s best time of 7.21 seconds in the 60m indoors on January 27 at the Astana Indoor Meet for Tulyakov Prizes. Additionally, she ran a season’s best 23.35 seconds in the 200m event on April 27 at the Yangtze Delta Athletics Diamond Gala in Suzhou, China.

The gifted sprinter is determined to make her return to athletics during the indoor season but the final say is up to her agent and coach.

“I think that I want to do a little bit of indoors just because I would be going into next season with no points at all. I don’t think it is something I am indifferent to because in 2012 I didn’t do any form of land training and I did well. I know that I am way better than what I was in 2012 but it is still something I have to work out with my coach and agent,” she said.

The three-time Olympian was poised to make her fourth appearance at the global event this summer in Paris, France. 

Previously, she competed at the Olympic Games in 2012 (London, England), 2016 (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and 2020 (Tokyo, Japan). She appeared to be on the right track, especially after making her first global final in the women’s 200m event at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary. 

Strachan was initially saddened by missing the 2024 Summer Olympic Games but she made peace with the circumstances in due time.

“I didn’t really care about it. My season was done from April and I had a lot of time to process it so I didn’t really care about the Olympics. It appeared to be very anticlimactic. Outside of it being the Olympics, it seemed to be very subpar so I wasn’t sad that I missed the Olympics at all.

“Originally, getting the news of having to end my season was very dreadful for me. I cried a lot the first two months of it but afterwards I was like there is nothing I could do and I am not gonna get any different results so I just had to accept what was already there,” she said.

The 2025 World Athletics Championships are slated for September 13-21 in Tokyo, Japan.