Kineke undaunted

Middle distance athlete, Kineke Alexander, is disappointed with her eight placing at last Saturday’s NCAA Finals of the 400m, held at Des Moines, Iowa.

Alexander clocked 52.53 seconds in the race, which was won by Penn State University’s Shana Cox in 50.92 seconds.{{more}}

She went into the finals with the sixth fastest time after clocking 52.36 in the semi finals on Friday last.

In the preliminaries, Alexander timed 53.11 seconds.

Relating a myriad of problems, Alexander told SEARCLIGHT last Tuesday from her hotel room in Iowa, “This year has been really difficult for me because of numerous reasons….

“The main reason being injuries. At the ending of the indoor season, I had a groin injury which went on for a while. Then my first race of the year, I strained my hamstring, which took at least two weeks to heal, and when that was healing, I twisted my ankle; all this affected my training, meaning I wasn’t able to train consistently”, Alexander said.

“So after all that, I was not to sure as where I would do at NCAA. This changed until I ran my season’s best at regional’s 52.24, which really motivated me for NCAA”, she added.

Going into last weekend’s games, Alexander reasoned, “At NCAA I was not ranked in the top 8, but I knew that as someone who has gone through this for four years, I could easily make the finals.”

“My main goal for that weekend was to run at break 52, it did not happen, which I was disappointed about, but I’m still grateful to God that I was able to make it that far”, Alexander said.

Despite this, Alexander sewed up her eighth All American honour in NCAA Indoor and Outdoor competition.

But her woes did not end as since returning from the NCAA championships, Alexander has been marooned after heavy rains in Iowa flooded the university.

Alexander said that she was looking forward to upcoming events as they will be her major test.

Included on her immediate agenda is a trip to the Caribbean and Central American Games.

She is this country’s lone qualifier thus far for the 2008 Beijing Olympics set for China in August.