by Stuart WeirWe will have two updates a day from the 2018 Commonwealth Games, held on the Gold Coast of Australia, which started on 4 April 2018. Sally Pearson, due to achilles injury, has withdrawn from the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Sally announced her decision at the press conference on the first day of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. Stuart Weir will be covering the CG for us, and this is his first column.
Sally Pearson, photo by PhotoRun.net
Sally Pearson
The news of the withdrawal of Sally Pearson from the women’s 100m hurdles, is the worst possible news on the first day of the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia. Not only is she the favourite and an Australian, but even a Gold Coast resident, living 20 minutes drive from the stadium. Her photo is everywhere in Gold Coast and she was chosen to run the final leg of the Queen’s baton relay in the opening ceremony.
At a press conference she said that she had been struggling with an Achilles injury and had decided a few days ago to withdraw but did not want to detract from the opening of the games. “My health comes first”, she explained. “I wanted to be able to go to the opening ceremony and enjoy myself. I had a big role to play. That is why I left it until today to announce it.” She added: “I want to go to Tokyo in 2020. If I had run, who knows what would have happened, I could have been out for longer than I am now.”
Pearson has nothing to prove to anyone. She has won it all: Olympic champion in 2012, World Champion in 2011 and 2017, World Indoor Champion in 2012, Commonwealth Champions in 2010 and 2014 plus three global silver medals.
She recovered from a horrendous fall at the 2015 Golden Gala in Rome which resulted in a bone explosion of her left forearm, which cancelled the remainder of that season. Then in 2016 a hamstring injury ruled hrr out of the Rio Olympics.
Having been privileged to be in the arenas to see her win all the medals mentioned above – and also that awful injury in Rome, I have a lot of admiration for Pearson. In the London Olympic final the reigning Olympic Champion Dawn Harper and Kellie Wells each ran PBs but had to settle for silver and bronze behind Pearson’s 12.35 into a negative wind.
In 2016 and 2017 girls like Jasmin Sawyers and Keni Harrison were recording consistently fast times in races around the world but when it came to the 2017 World Championship final, it was experience that triumphed over youth, with Pearson winning from Harper-Nelson
She said of her London 2017 World title: “This is just so incredible to be a world champion again. I’ve worked so hard, I don’t know what has just happened out there. I’m so tired but I’m sure it will sink in soon. I don’t know if it was surprise or what, but the emotion just escaped my body because I was so excited and so happy to have achieved what I have worked so hard for. It’s been a long journey back from injury, but to get this moment and go and celebrate in front of my family is unreal”.
The decision to deny herself the chance to perform in from of her home crowd in her own city must have been so difficult. The fact that her statement referred to not jeopardizing her chances of making the 2020 Olympics, shows that we have not seen the last of Sally Pearson.
