Shereen willing to put aside 400m for her mother
SHEREEN Samson Vallabouy is willing to risk aggravating a hamstring injury to help the country win a medal in the women’s 4x400m at the Kuala Lumpur Sea Games.
But in a compromise reached with her mother and coach Josephine Mary, Shereen agreed to forego running the 400m event as she put her ambition to emulate the successes of her parents on the backburner, for two more years at least.
Such is Shereen’s determination, the youngster worked hard to recover from her injury which happened just a day before she was due to leave for the Asian Championships in early July.
That nearly put the 19-yearold’s plan to run at the Sea Games, which begins on Aug 19, in jeopardy but Shereen is glad to have recovered sufficiently to at least line up for the relay.
“I was injured while training for the relay. At first I felt tightness and then I pulled the hamstring. But after doing rehab for a month, I’m progressing well and recovering,” said Shereen in an interview arranged by her sponsor Under Armour.
“I’ve started to run again in training. I won’t run the 400m as I need time to recover and I’m not ready to push yet. So I will only be running in the relay and one run should be okay. If more than that then I would stress the hamstring so I don’t mind helping the team.”
Shereen won two bronze medals in her Sea Games debut in Singapore two years ago in the 400m and 4x400m.
Her father, Samson Vallabouy, won 800m gold medals in 1989 and 1991 while Josephine was a 400m-800m double winner in 1987.
“I was really looking forward to run at the Sea Games and everything was going to plan until the injury happened,” said Shereen. “I feel quite down but I take it as a challenge.”
Shereen, who was part of the 4x100m quartet that broke the national record at the Thailand Open in June, will instead combine with Fathin Nurfaqihah Yusof, Nurul Faizah Asma Mazlan and M. Tanalaksiumy in an attempt to improve on their thirdplace showing in 2015.
On being sponsored by Under Armour, Shereen said: “I feel really comfortable using their gear. It fits me perfectly and is really useful in training.” Devinder Singh