As a teenager, Anthonique Strachan showed the tremendous potential of becoming one of the world’s brightest stars in track and field.

A five-time Carifta gold medalist, 2011 Pan Am Junior 100m champion and World U20 100 and 200m champion in 2012, things were looking up for the young Bahamian.

However, the intervening years have not been as kind. Injuries and a subsequent loss of confidence derailed the promising start to Strachan’s career and raised doubts about whether she would ever fulfil her promise.

“It’s actually very tough because you start to ridicule and judge yourself and then you go on social media and you see people judging you,” said Strachan, who is now 28 and having her best season in a decade.

“I haven’t PB’ed in 10 years so I see people telling me that I need to hang it up, get a 9-5, all sorts of stuff but nobody knows what happens when the lights are off so I try not to take it to heart but it’s sort of difficult to judge yourself and also have people out there judging you.”

So far, 2022 has been good to her. She opened up with a personal best of 10.99 in the 100m at the John Wolmer Speed Fest on March 26 at the National Stadium in Kingston, where she trains with the MVP Track Club and then on Saturday, April 23, she ran 22.55 to win the 200m against a field that included multiple Olympic and World Champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.

Yes, the Pocket Rocket did slow noticeably over the last 50m but when you take into consideration the fact that Strachan ran a spectacular 23.24 into a -5.00 m/s wind at the Bermuda Games on April 9,  you understand that the time she ran on Saturday night was no fluke.

So what exactly has brought about this pleasantly surprising return to form for the talented Bahamian sprinter?

She reveals that she accepted help and stopped putting pressure on herself to succeed.

“Because I had so many injuries it was difficult for me to trust coaching and other people or even trust myself and my coach told me to let somebody in to actually help me to help myself and that is what I have been trying to do this season,” she confessed.

“I stopped judging myself so hard and stopped piling on so many things and taking it one stride at a time.”

Strachan began to show a return to form in 2021 when she ran the 100m in 11.30, her best time since 2012 and 22.56 over 200m, her best time since 2014. She also made it to the semi-finals of the 200m at the Tokyo Olympics.

However, she had no idea that 2022 would have begun on a positive note.

“I bragged and boasted about opening up with a 10, but that was BS so now that it has actually happened I have sort of put it out there in the atmosphere and it sort of came through,” she said admitting that she is now a lot more confident than she has been during the past decade.

“It gives me plenty of confidence. I am trying to run all the times I can run right now to put myself in a better standpoint before the big girls come out to play.”