Australia-Sally-Pearson

Australia’s Olympic hurdles champion Sally Pearson expects to be competing by late next month as she continues her fightback from a badly broken wrist, reports said Monday.

The 29-year-old, who won the 100 metres hurdles gold at London in 2012, broke two bones and dislocated her wrist in a tumble during the Rome Diamond League meeting in June last year and has not raced since.

Australia’s top athlete said she was determined to be back in time to bid for a second 100m hurdles gold medal at the Rio Olympics in August.

Pearson, who was named on the Australian team for Rio on Sunday, said she felt she was only seven or eight weeks away from being ready to race.

“Training has been going really well,” she told The Australian newspaper.

“The progression I have made in the last three to four weeks is really exciting. I start hurdling on Thursday so I’m really looking forward to that.

“I can’t wait to come out of the blocks and try my new starting technique over hurdles and then hopefully race in the next seven to eight weeks.”

Pearson said she has lost flexibility in her surgically-repaired wrist and it has left her unable to balance on her hands at the start using her former technique.

“I don’t have any extension in my wrist so that makes starting on the track quite hard,” she said.

“I didn’t realise how much my wrist extended when I’m in the starting blocks and how much power I use from my arms for my starting.

“So we’re going to have to change a few things around but I think with more practice it will become second nature to me.”

Pearson said she had hoped to race during the domestic season but she had a series of minor setbacks with her body, including an Achilles tendon scare.

She went to Germany last month to see the doctor who treats sprint king Usain Bolt for an ongoing back problem, Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfahrt, where she sought reassurance that her body would hold up to an Olympic campaign.

She said he had given her a clean bill of health.

Despite her lack of racing, Pearson was one of 28 athletes added to the Australian Olympic team on Sunday at the conclusion of the national championships in Sydney.

She had registered a Games qualifying time before her mishap in Rome. – Agence France-Presse

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