After injury lay-off, Whyte on the comeback trail
Two-time Olympic 400 metre finalist Rosemarie WhyteRobinson is on the comeback trail. Whyte-Robinson, 30, is hoping to win a race against injuries so she can regain the form that made her one of the world’s best. Just before she set to work at a December 5 training session at Calabar High School, she offered words of praise for the progress Jamaica has made in the 4x400 metre relay since she has been out of regular competition. Nagging hamstring pain has defied all the doctors the former Holmwood Technical High School star has seen. “From 2013, I’m feeling this pain in my hamstring. Basically, whenever I train or do speed work or the training gets intense, it restricts my muscle,” she said.
SLIPPED DISC
“I can’t really go forward,” she added in an effort to convey what she has been experiencing despite surgery done last year. Sadly, that operation hasn’t helped. An MRI scan eventually revealed that she had suffered a slipped disc which is resting on a nerve. The seventh fastest Jamaican woman at 400 metres is back from the verge of retirement on the advice of sports massage therapist Shaun Kettle, who will shortly begin treating her with a new machine that she hopes will help. “It’s really frustrating when you know what you’re capable of doing,” said the athlete who set a personal best of 49.84 seconds in 2011. Her best relay run for Jamaica may well have come at the 2011 Worlds. That’s when her 50.1 seconds lead-off leg paved the way to a national record of 3:18.71. She hopes to get back to her best and said, “To be honest, at this point, basically, “I’m just trying to keep focused on training hard. Hopefully, I pray to God that everything will work out the way I want it to be so that Rosemarie Whyte can be on track at full speed at where she used to be like 2008, 2009 and 2011, when I ran the 49.84.”