J’Maal Alexander and Tahesia Harrigan-Scott both faced setbacks during the London 2012 Olympic Games. The athletes represented the territory well, but were unable to make the finals in their respective events.
As an unqualified athlete, Mr. Alexander competed in a preliminary round of the 100 metres seeking a chance to get into the first round. The first two finishers would face Usain Bolt in the next round, while the top qualifiers received a bye.
“It was about to be the best race I’ve ever run,” Mr. Alexander said. “But, at 70 metres, I felt my hamstring pull. I had to slow down, but managed to come fourth in the race.”
He felt he could have won his heat because he had “one of the best starts of his life.”
“Once I get out with them, they can’t go leave me because that’s the type of runner I am,” he added. “I knew within me, I could have won the race. But then I felt my hamstring…”
Mr. Alexander and his coach Winston Potter focused on improving his start during the pre-games training camp and he got the start that he always wanted, his coach said.
The sprinter finished fourth in 10.92 seconds and said he was satisfied with his performance. Despite being injured he still managed to beat other athletes.
“I pulled up and still beat other guys in the race,” he said.
He said the Olympics have been good learning experience.
“You see how these guys look and it makes me get more serious, to change and to become a leader,” Mr. Alexander said. “I want everybody to follow in that same path, get stronger, hopefully get to the top represent the BVI so we’ll have bigger teams attending these events.”
Among Ms. Harrigan-Scott’s goals for the London Games was to go a step further than her Beijing Olympic Games experience. But for the second successive Olympic Games, she ended up in the same doctor’s office.
“Training had been going extremely, extremely well,” she said. “I had a really big plan for me for the Olympic Games. To see that I got injured in February and that it prolonged throughout the season made me note that I was in the same physical therapy office in 2012 as I was in, in 2008 and I asked if its for me. But, you go through trials during your career and sometimes you can’t let your thoughts derail you by thinking that every time this big events comes up, your are ineffective in it.”
Asked what she can take away from the London Games to build on in the future, the territory’s double sprint record holder who has produced the fastest times for a decade but ran slowed times since high school, said there were things she took for granted in her career.
“I love track and field, not that I don’t train hard or not that I don’t work hard, not that I don’t learn from the experiences, but getting hurt and not being able to run 11.3, not even 11.4 not even on a good day, you realise things can change for the worst,” she said. “I realise you have to listen to yourself, because I thought my injury was in the hip flexor, whereas, you have a professional telling you it’s in your quad. So, it’s just for me to listen to my body, take the time off if it says it needs, if it needs a break, then to go out there and continue to work hard and continue to push forward no matter what the situation is.”
During her Olympic Games race where she ran a season’s best 11.59 seconds, she felt good and wanted to work on the first part of her race which is usually her best, but said it was shaky, with a series of technical flaws she didn’t overcome.
“If I’m able to go to the next Olympics, then I’ll go out there and give it all I have as in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics,” she said.