Tweet
Injury-plagued Smith targets T/J world mark
Sport
Injury-plagued Smith targets T/J world mark
BY PAUL A REID Observer Writer reidp@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Driven by her quest to break the triple jump world record and not allowing serious injuries to get in her way, former World Champion Trecia Kay Smith says she has a lot more to achieve before hanging up her spikes.
SMITH... I'm back to full health and full fitness is coming along
The 33-year-old former Mannings School and University of Pittsburgh graduate is gradually coming back from serious back injuries which have plagued her for the past three seasons and at times threatened to end her career.
Speaking to the Sunday Observer a day after winning her sixth National Senior title at the recent Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association's National Trials at the National Stadium, Smith - a trained physiotherapist - pronounced "Yes, I am back to full health... but full fitness is coming along very nicely."
Smith, who leaped 14.43m to win the event, her best effort in nearly three years, says a persistent injury to her back has been "very frustrating."
The last time she jumped that far, she says, was in 2006, just before she suffered the injury during a Grand Prix meet at Crystal Palace, in a 15.05m effort in Helsinki, Finland.
She admitted she has had thoughts of giving up, especially after the injury flared up in pre-season training in 2007. The lanky Jamaican, who is based in England, said she had just returned from "warm weather training" in South Africa which went well and thought she had got over the injury and was looking forward to a good season.
"I thought I had gotten over the hump... and went to track the next day and I was just doing gentle strides, nothing big, nothing massive but with each stride my back got progressively worse... I could not sit, could not stand, could not lay down, there was no position that was comfortable."
The injury, a herniated disc, had got worse, she said, as it "touches the right nerve root, completely compresses the left nerve root and was now affecting both sides of my body," she told the Sunday Observer.
She added: "That day I just looked at my coach and said 'right, that's it'. This was March and up to May I had not trained at all as I was still in pain."
She was not ready to give up, however, as she had something of an "epiphany". Drawing on her background in physiotherapy, she said, "I thought if someone came to me in this condition and I have treated people with worst conditions and gotten them back to being independent, I just reflected to myself and started slowly recovering and in (late) May I started training and came to Trials two weeks later."
She admitted she was not the best of patients.
"There were times I was meant to do something as a part of the rehab, but did not do it... I was not a model patient."
She says the injury is well behind her now, however, and the quest for the world record is well under way again as mentally she was never away from the sport, otherwise she would never have competed at all during the past three years.
According to Smith, the 14.43m done at Trials felt like "it was a 15m jump. Technically I'm not fully back yet; I have certain things I have to work on - speed on runway and through the phases I've got to work on that and nail that if I'm going to represent myself very well at the World Championships."
Her outlook, she says, is a positive one right now. "I have overcome an injury where most people would throw in the towel."
She told the Sunday Observer that the injury was so bad that "when I showed the MRI scan to the consultant they said right away (that I should) fuse it, but I thought 'No, I can't fuse it as I have not completed what I set out to do athletically'."
Smith, whose personal best is 15.16m done in Linz, Austria in 2004, says the 15.50m world mark held by Ukrainian Inessa Kravets is just "the length of my leg away".
At age 33 she says she still has a lot left in triple jump. "Why should I put a time limit on myself? I'm still relatively new to the triple jump. I might be getting up there in age, but I'm still pretty new to the triple jump."
Smith said she had done a number of disciplines in track and field. "I started doing the 100m, then switched to long jump, then to the heptathlon, then to the triple jump. I don't think I've spent enough time on one event to get burnt out," she said, using veteran hurdler Danny McFarlane as an example.
"Look at Danny McFarlane. For years he was doing (the flat) 400m then found his niche at 400m hurdles. At his age (he is) still running with the youngster and doing very well."
Injury-plagued Smith targets T/J world mark
BY PAUL A REID Observer Writer reidp@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Driven by her quest to break the triple jump world record and not allowing serious injuries to get in her way, former World Champion Trecia Kay Smith says she has a lot more to achieve before hanging up her spikes.
SMITH... I'm back to full health and full fitness is coming along
The 33-year-old former Mannings School and University of Pittsburgh graduate is gradually coming back from serious back injuries which have plagued her for the past three seasons and at times threatened to end her career.
Speaking to the Sunday Observer a day after winning her sixth National Senior title at the recent Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association's National Trials at the National Stadium, Smith - a trained physiotherapist - pronounced "Yes, I am back to full health... but full fitness is coming along very nicely."
Smith, who leaped 14.43m to win the event, her best effort in nearly three years, says a persistent injury to her back has been "very frustrating."
The last time she jumped that far, she says, was in 2006, just before she suffered the injury during a Grand Prix meet at Crystal Palace, in a 15.05m effort in Helsinki, Finland.
She admitted she has had thoughts of giving up, especially after the injury flared up in pre-season training in 2007. The lanky Jamaican, who is based in England, said she had just returned from "warm weather training" in South Africa which went well and thought she had got over the injury and was looking forward to a good season.
"I thought I had gotten over the hump... and went to track the next day and I was just doing gentle strides, nothing big, nothing massive but with each stride my back got progressively worse... I could not sit, could not stand, could not lay down, there was no position that was comfortable."
The injury, a herniated disc, had got worse, she said, as it "touches the right nerve root, completely compresses the left nerve root and was now affecting both sides of my body," she told the Sunday Observer.
She added: "That day I just looked at my coach and said 'right, that's it'. This was March and up to May I had not trained at all as I was still in pain."
She was not ready to give up, however, as she had something of an "epiphany". Drawing on her background in physiotherapy, she said, "I thought if someone came to me in this condition and I have treated people with worst conditions and gotten them back to being independent, I just reflected to myself and started slowly recovering and in (late) May I started training and came to Trials two weeks later."
She admitted she was not the best of patients.
"There were times I was meant to do something as a part of the rehab, but did not do it... I was not a model patient."
She says the injury is well behind her now, however, and the quest for the world record is well under way again as mentally she was never away from the sport, otherwise she would never have competed at all during the past three years.
According to Smith, the 14.43m done at Trials felt like "it was a 15m jump. Technically I'm not fully back yet; I have certain things I have to work on - speed on runway and through the phases I've got to work on that and nail that if I'm going to represent myself very well at the World Championships."
Her outlook, she says, is a positive one right now. "I have overcome an injury where most people would throw in the towel."
She told the Sunday Observer that the injury was so bad that "when I showed the MRI scan to the consultant they said right away (that I should) fuse it, but I thought 'No, I can't fuse it as I have not completed what I set out to do athletically'."
Smith, whose personal best is 15.16m done in Linz, Austria in 2004, says the 15.50m world mark held by Ukrainian Inessa Kravets is just "the length of my leg away".
At age 33 she says she still has a lot left in triple jump. "Why should I put a time limit on myself? I'm still relatively new to the triple jump. I might be getting up there in age, but I'm still pretty new to the triple jump."
Smith said she had done a number of disciplines in track and field. "I started doing the 100m, then switched to long jump, then to the heptathlon, then to the triple jump. I don't think I've spent enough time on one event to get burnt out," she said, using veteran hurdler Danny McFarlane as an example.
"Look at Danny McFarlane. For years he was doing (the flat) 400m then found his niche at 400m hurdles. At his age (he is) still running with the youngster and doing very well."
Comment