SIMPSON'S TIME TO RISE AGAIN

Olympic 100 metre silver medallist Sherone Simpson must have had a hard time sitting around watching Jamaica dominate the 12th IAAF World Athletic Championships in Berlin last August. Thirteen medals including six gold ones and she did not have any part to play in a single one.

One of the fastest women in history, Simpson won her first individual medal at a major championship when she and team-mates Kerron Stewart and Shelly Ann Fraser copped a historic 1-2-2 sweep of the 100 metre sprint at the Olympics in Beijing, China in 2008. She then underwent her second knee surgery following those historic games and missed a sizeable chunk of the ’09 season rehabilitating and training.

But it wasn’t like she didn’t try to get involved. In an incredibly brave attempt to qualify for the Jamaican team to Berlin, Germany, she barely missed the finals finishing fifth in the semi-finals of the 100 metres at the National Championships in June. It would mean that she missed her shot at making the top 4 in the finals and with it the last two world championships – Osaka and Berlin – both because of knee surgery.

In the time between Osaka and Berlin, Simpson graduated from the University of Technology fulfilling a significant part of her career goals.

Now chasing some of her other major career goals Simpson fought her way back to race fitness by participating in a series of low-key meets and one major meet before returning home presumably healthy and eager to see the back of 2009 and welcome 2010.

I have always admired Simpson for her courage, her smarts, and her ability to overcome adversity.

After experiencing a season on top of the world in 2006 when she recorded seven of the 10 fastest times in the world in the 100 metres and came within one-win of qualifying for a share of the Golden League million-dollar jackpot, Simpson would spend 2007 recovering from surgery to repair her damaged knee.

Then like the eternally rising Phoenix she exploded back onto the scene in 2008, finishing third at the National Championships in a smart 10.87s and then sharing silver medals with Stewart in the Olympic finals. Her time of 10.98s does not tell the story that she was actually leading the finals before Fraser caught and passed her on the way to the gold medal.

We can only hope that 2010 will witness another rising from Simpson. We can pray that she chooses to defend her 2006 Commonwealth Games 200-metre title in India and then go on to greater things in Daegu, South Korea in 2011. She still has time on her side and if anyone deserves a shot at World Championship glory it would the little petite miss from central Manchester.
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