Ennis-London opened this season with the fifth fastest time in the world

For former three time national sprint hurdles champion and record holder Delloreen Ennis-London, between June 2001 and July 2002 has been bittersweet. Not only was it a period when she was injured and unable to do competitive sports which she loves so much but it was also when she gave birth to her daughter Zarina, born July 14, 2002.

The athlete, 27 at the time, had been competing for nearly twenty years since her days at Eccleston Primary School in Macca Tree, St Catherine where she grew up, the middle child of seven. It was her proficiency on the track that led to her transfer from Old Harbour High School to St Jago where she continued to represent the school at Girls Championships.

Initially, she had started out competing in the long jump and flat 100, but with the direction of her coach changed her focus to the hurldes.

Ennis-London first represented Jamaica internationally at the 1992 Carifta Games, winning gold in The Bahamas. She later earned a scholarship to Albien Christian University in Texas where she met husband and coach, Lincoln. They were introduced through a mutual friend, Tracy Barnes, who showed him some photos of her, "Tracy said, Dello there is this guy from Trinidad and all he is talking about is can I meet this girl? I like this picture."

For Lincoln it was love at first sight as she relates, "He said something just stood out with my name. He thought it was European or so." Later after her arrival at Albien, she was in the weights room one day and noticed a guy staring at her. Delloreen laughed as she related the story of the confrontation where she introduced herself and boldly asked why he was staring. He then introduced himself as the person that had admired her before. They became best friends, shared classes and a major in Management, before dating and then marrying in December 1998.

It was this partnership with London, who was not then a certified coach, that led to Delloreen winning back to back national championships in 1999, 2000 (when she also ran a national record 12.52 seconds) and 2001.

She relates the day she sustained the injury that would keep her off the track for nearly two years as one that started out well, " I went to a meet in Paris and I felt real good that day. Everything was flowing. We had a target going for that year and it was just falling in place." However, going over a hurdle she aggravated an injury sustained playing netball in 1994 and did reconstructive surgery in July 2001.

She then thought the long lay-off that followed would be the perfect time to have a child. " There is no way I'm going to be able to start training. I can't put all that pressure to get myself ready to come back for 2002, so I said I think this is the best time to have my little baby girl."
Now she competes with her daughter in mind. " I have my daughter now and that gives me more incentive to go out there and push myself further because I want her to be proud... it's just something when you walk onto the track. You're thinking my little girl she's watching me. It gives me that extra drive."

In 2003 she unsuccessfully attempted a comeback. But she had developed a stress fracture between two toes and had fluid developing in a knee, which she says was quite painful. Despite this, she still ran 12.70 seconds at the CAC games before heading to Europe. It was at this point she realised she needed to take a break and recharge for the 2004 season, " I just couldn't see myself going at all. I just cut my season early and said just let me go and try to get myself sorted out."

She's done exactly that, competing for the first time in her career on the indoor circuit this season and opening with the fifth fastest time in the world, 7.95 seconds, at a track and field meeting in Stuttgart, Germany in January.
Delloreen says she decided to compete indoors this year in order to help her regain strength and build confidence, " I'm happy and very thankful. I'd never run indoors and I knew that it was a tricky one when I ran that 7.95. I walked away and I'm happy, I'm very pleased."
This is also an Olympic year with the Athens Games in Greece in August but Delloreen is taking it one step at a time, first focussing on the World Indoor Championships in Budapest this month and then whatever comes after. "The Olympics is the ultimate, but right now, I want to take it one step at a time. I have WIC and I want to see where I go from there. Then when outdoor events come, the whole focus is definitely on the Olympics."
When she competes on the international circuit Delloreen has to leave her daughter at home with her husband in Texas, which she regrets, but thinks it is better not to have Zarina exposed to the trauma of long flights and long days at so early an age. She says they are always in her thoughts though, " I call them everyday, sometimes twice. It is very hard because sometimes when I talk to my husband he is like you know everything she sees she points and says 'Mama'."
At the end of the day though Delloreen says despite the emptiness she feels when she is away from her family it is with one goal, "I'm doing all this for her. At the end of the day she can live a comfortable life."

Dania Bogle is a Sports Journalist with KLAS Sports radio.

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