Holmwood’s Meikle easing her way back

Kiara Meikle was having the season of her life last year when disaster struck right after a stellar performance in the 100-metre hurdles. Now, the Holmwood Technical High athlete is patiently making her way back.

Her 2023 season peaked at the Central Athletics Championships with a hard-fought win over the outstanding Camoy Binger of Hydel High School in the Class Two 100m hurdles. The win yielded a meet record 13.16 seconds and eased none other than 2022 World Under-20 queen Kerrica Hill out of the Central Champs record books. Minutes after the glory, pain began to radiate from her quadriceps.

“She came through the line, came back to the camp feeling happy and a few minutes later, she started to feel the pain in her quad. So we said, you finished the race and didn’t feel anything and so there and then we realised that she picked up an injury after coming through the line. She didn’t feel it until her body began to get back to normal temperature,” Holmwood’s head coach Dave Anderson said on Wednesday.

The injury put her off track in the weeks leading to Boys and Girls’ Championships (Champs). She reached the final but couldn’t do her best and finished fifth.

The gold medal went to another Hydel hurdler Jodyann Daley.

With that Champs opportunity missed, Meikle has approached 2024 carefully. She has only run one individual race, the 100m at the Sprint Fest hosted by GC Foster College on January 19, with a winning time of 12.02 seconds.

“I feel alright, just need to rewind and come back again in training,” she said of the programme supervised by hurdles coach Dwight Jones.

She did the 4x100m at the Central Hurdles and Relays on January 20.

“So far, we have been trying not to race her too much so on Saturday, she didn’t hurdle. She ran the 4x100m,” Anderson remarked. “We’re trying to protect her and ensure she turns up at Champs in good shape,” he added.

Her 2024 debut in the hurdles is set for the Youngster Goldsmith Classic inside the National Stadium on February 3.

“All being well, we’re looking at Youngster Goldsmith for her to run the 100m hurdles, so definitely she’s been putting in the work and just coming off a hurdles session this week and she’s looking sharp,” Anderson said.

Meikle is patiently looking ahead. “If I get my mindset right, I think I could do something great this season,” she said.