Warning signs had been there for weeks

IT was the email which set off warning sirens.

Last Wednesday on the morning of the final lead-up event for the Commonwealth Games, Sally Pearson’s manager released a strange statement about the status of the hurdles champion.

It revealed Pearson wouldn’t be racing in the 100m hurdles at the Brisbane meet but instead only running a leg of the 4x100m relay. And in an extraordinary revelation given Pearson’s love of secrecy throughout her career, Robert Joske declared her preparation was being “compromised by a recurrent Achilles issue”.

It was almost like he was preparing everyone for exactly what happened seven days later.

Pearson’s mantra throughout her career has always been never give an opponent anything. Don’t let them know you’re vulnerable in any way.

The year after Pearson’s breakthrough silver medal at the 2008 Olympic Games, she went to the world championships in Berlin as favourite.

In the lead-up she hurt her back but told no-one with the injury only being revealed when she disappointed in the final, finishing fifth.

In the lead-up to the 2014 Commonwealth Games Pearson tore her hamstring seven weeks out but kept it in-house.

The whispers about this preparation had started well before Joske’s email.

Pearson hadn’t raced a lot this year and when she did it was obvious there was something not quite right.

She couldn’t hide her frustration in January when she recorded what she deemed disappointing times in Perth and Canberra. Her first appearance on the Carrara Stadium track at the selection trials in February also didn’t go according to plan with her 16th national title won in 12.73sec. The selfcoached Pearson wanted to be running around 12.5sec.

A trip to the world indoor championships in Birmingham followed but she failed to make it out of the semi-finals.

When she got back to Australia the Achilles issue which she’d struggled with since 2015 had got worse.

The seeds of doubt in the Pearson camp grew to the point where Joske was moved to break protocol and release the now infamous email.

On Tuesday Pearson was unable to complete a simple hurdles drill, one she’d done thousands of times before. She stood at the end of the track and shook her head.

That doubt which had been bubbling along for months now flooded her senses.

She was cooked. The dream was over.