By BRENT STUBBS

Chief Sports Editor

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

JUST when it appeared that sprinter Anthonique Strachan was starting to round back into form of her old self, she was sidelined with another series of injuries that has put an end to her season.

The 30-year-old, still looking for her first senior global medal, was preparing for her fourth appearance at the Olympic Games in Paris, France in August when she found out that she had hairline fractures in the shins in both of her feet.

“Two of them are threatening to be able to actually snap, so to avoid that and not have to do surgery, I’m just stepping down for the season so I can heal naturally and just focus on next season and the seasons ahead.”

Over the weekend of May 4-5, Strachan returned home to compete on the mixed 4 x 400m relay team in a bid to help the trio of Steven Gardiner, Shaunae Miller-Uibo and Alonzo Russell qualify for the Olympics.

But she felt it wasn’t safe to run and was replaced by Grand Bahama’s 16-year-old Tabernacle Baptist Academy 12th grader Shania Adderley as she competed with Miller-Ubio, Gardiner and Russell in booking their ticket to Paris.

Strachan, who competed with Miller-Uibo and Gardiner along with retired Grand Bahamian Michael Mathieu to win the mixed relay at the last World Relays held in the Bahamas in 2017, said she sustained an injury during the indoor season. “I was constantly told that it was shin splints and I was being treated for that,” she said. “I never had any shin injury before so I couldn’t compare it with anything I felt before.

“But once I was waking up in pain and I was in pain all day no matter what I did, I realised it couldn’t be shin splints. I was in and out of training. But when I talked to my doctors, they told me that if I continue on the path I was going, it could get worse.”

Strachan, who is back in Jamaica where her training base is located, said she decided after not running in the World Relays and consultation with her doctors, it was decided that she would end her season.

“My number one goal should have always been to prioritise myself and body health and that is something I am doing right now,” she said. “The only thing that is changing is the dates. My goals and objectives still remain the same. It’s just delayed.”

While it weighed heavily on her mind, Strachan said she decided to take the time off and get in the proper therapy to ease some of the pain she was experiencing for the past few weeks.

After running a season’s best of 7.21 in the 60m indoors on January 27, Strachan looked like she was taking off from where she left off last year. She went on to post her season’s best of 23.35 in the 200m outdoors on April 27.

In 2023, she opened up with 7.25 indoors in the 60m and went on to record her lifetime best of 10.92 in the 100m and 22.15 in the 200m. She also made the final of the 200m in 22.29 at the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

But Strachan said she was looking to build on that performance as she attempted to qualify for Paris and her fourth Olympics after making the team in 2012 in London, England, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and 2021 in Tokyo, Japan.

Now she will delay her quest to compete again as she goes back to the drawing board and gets ready for the 2025 season that leads into the World Championships in Tokyo, Japan from September 13-21.