Reigning national sprint champion Rupert Perry is looking to shake off his injury woes of earlier this season and return to the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Inter Unit Track and Field Championships at the GDF ground Camp Ayangana which begin today.
The 22-year-old sprint ace and his teammate Quinse Clarke benefited from a training stink in Jamaica earlier this year courtesy of the GDF. During his time at the High Performance Centre however, Perry said that he fractured his ankle and was kept out of competition ever since.
But the wait is over as Perry plans to return to the track this week at the GDF’s Inter Unit championships to compete in the 200. Perry is expected to take the track for 200m heats as early as tomorrow (Wednesday). Although he is the Inter Services Athletic Championships (ISAC) 100m and 200m champion, Perry has never won at the Inter Unit level.
The Defence Headquarter lance corporal had been in the shadows of three-time GDF sprint champion Quinse Clarke and the showdown was avoided as both men were competing at the ALBA Games last year. Perry now has the opportunity to claim his maiden GDF sprint titles since Clarke is still injured and will not compete.
However, the former national U23 champion said that he will only be competing in the 200m at this week’s Inter Unit event.
“It’s definitely just the 200m for me. I’m just trying to get back to competition fitness and I don’t want to push it too much,” Perry said.
While he was nursing his injury, Perry said that he was off the track completely and lost his fitness. Perry also said that he only returned to training about six weeks ago and while he feels that he has recovered from the injury, he has not yet regained his fitness.
Perry’s last track meet was the University of the West Indies (UWI) Invitational track meet in February where he incidentally only competed in the 200m as well. Now back on track, Perry said that he expects to be challenged by seasoned 200m campaigner Patrick King, fresh off a sprint double at the recently held South American Under23/Youth Trials, Leslain Baird and Darren Henry.
While Perry is not sure that when he will be back to his commanding form that helped him capture both titles at ISAC last year, he is confident that it will be soon so that he can be able to successfully defend those titles.
