Rupert Perry has admitted that in posting the fastest time in the 200m preliminary on his return to track after a six-month hiatus yesterday at the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Inter Unit Championships held at the GDF ground Camp Ayanganna, his only intention was to test his peed.
Running out of heat one, the fully recuperative Perry sent a message in a commanding win in 21.1 seconds although he seemed to be coasting down the final straight just doing enough to hold off training partner Leslain Baird.
The reigning Inter Services Athletics 100m and 200m champion confessed however that he powered through the first 70m of the race just to test his speed.
“I run the first 70m hard till I eat-upBaird stagger (closed the apparent deficit created by lanes) and soon as I realise that I was there I just hold my technique, relax and go home,” Perry said. “I think it was good, I mean everybody said that it looked like if I wasn’t even running but it was a good performance all in all. Feels good to be back but I know I still got a lot of work to do to get back fit,” Perry added.
The 22-year-old lance corporal from Defence Headquarter (DHQ) had sustained an ankle fracture while training at the High Performance Centre in Jamaica earlier this year and he had not competed since the University of the West Indies (UWI) Invitational in February.
Perry, who ran his personal best of 20.8 seconds at ISAC 2010, said that he was pleasantly surprised with his time as he was expecting a much slower race.
“I was expecting like a 22 second race, because my recovery and fitness isn’t back to where it should be as yet…” Perry added. The first three finishers in Perry’s heat ran under 22 seconds.
While 21.1 boosted his confidence, Perry said that he is not hoping to better that in the final tomorrow as he has to focus solely on winning. Patrick King and Akeem Stewart won their respective heats, clocking the identical time 21.7s. Though their times were slower, Perry said that he was impressed with the performances of both sprinters, especially King who also seemed to have relaxed for most of the final straight. For this reason, Perry said that he will ignore the clock and concentrate on working hard in his race phases to overcome the challenges of his main competitors to claim his maiden Inter Unit sprint title.
Perry also plans to make his return to in the 100m at this weekend’s Gymkana Invitational 100m race. Following that event, Perry plans to rest up for a while before he begins his intense preparation to defend his sprint titles at ISAC in a few weeks’ time.
