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Spencer-Carter holds on to faith - Hurdler hoping potential Olympic bronze can reignite career

Published:Tuesday | March 31, 2020 | 12:07 AMAkino Ming/Staff Reporter
Spencer-Carter
Spencer-Carter

KALIESE SPENCER- CARTER is hoping that the possibility of her fourth-place finish in the 400m hurdles at the London Olympic Games being upgraded to the bronze medal will inject some impetus into her career.

The 32-year-old could be awarded her first individual medal at a senior global athletics championships, as it was revealed that Russian athlete Natalya Antyuhk could be stripped of her Olympic gold medal after being charged with doping, on evidence from the report of Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren.

McLaren was commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency in 2016 to expose wide-scale institutionalised doping in Russia.

The 2006 World Under-20 champion has endured a dip in form in the event over the past three seasons, as she has not been able to finish in the top three in the event at the Jamaica National Championships.

Though she quickly pointed out that she is not celebrating in another athlete’s potential demise, Spencer-Carter said that she would be ecstatic if she were to be awarded the bronze medal, as she would have achieved her ultimate goal to win an Olympic medal from the beginning of her athletic career, which will now serve as a motivation going forward.

“I am a strong believer in fair play. With that in mind, I would be overly ecstatic if the system work accurately and deemed me to be the winner of the 2012 Olympic bronze medal in my discipline (women’s 400m hurdles),” she said. “After all, this would have been my ultimate goal from the beginning of my athletic career; and though a verdict has not been reached and I am not celebrating in another athlete’s possible downfall, just to know that after eight years, the possibility is there that I would have achieved such is truly a blessing in my eyes.”

LAZARUS

She continued: “ My athletic career could be likened to Lazarus in the Bible – You will rise again, because He who has began a good work in me will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Therefore, in training going into the upcoming Olympics, it will serve as a reassurance that no matter how hard it gets, there is always light at the end of the tunnel.”

Antyuhk, Andrey Silnov, who won gold over the now deceased Jamaica-born British athlete Germaine Mason in the men’s high jump at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Yelena Soboleva, who won a silver medal in the women’s 1500m at the 2007 World Athletics Championships, and hammer thrower Oksana Kondratyeva will have to face a decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on whether they should be stripped of their medals.

“I look forward to collecting my bronze medal ... because such a result would be a testimony and goes to show that no matter the circumstances, God is in control. Therefore, by applying faith and doing the groundwork, whatever your goals are they can be accomplished,” Spencer-Carter said.