AFTER her gruelling 16-event schedule in last weekend’s NCAA Division Two outdoor championships at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan, Salcia Slack would be excused if she said she felt extra fatigued.

The former Holmwood Technical and UTech athlete, however, said she felt the same way she normally feels after a track meet. “No I am not that tired,” she said when questioned by the Jamaica Observer Saturday night.

Slack, who is in her final year of eligibility at New Mexico Highlands University, had just completed one of the most extraordinary weekends in track and field, competing in 16 events, the seven-event Heptathlon as well as the 100m hurdles, 400m hurdles, triple jump, shot put, and long jump as well as running both rounds of the 4x400m relays.

She ran the heats and finals of both hurdles events and made all but two finals, failing to score in the triple jump and shot put events, but ended up with 31 of her school’s 42 points for fourth place in the women’s section and single handedly beat 63 other schools that managed to score a point in the three-day championships.

In addition to retaining the Heptathlon title, she was second in both hurdles events, both in new personal best times of 13.42 seconds and 58.24 seconds, respectively, and sixth in the long jump, also with a new personal best of 6.22m.

Given the notion that Jamaican athletes are often time over-worked and burnt out by American college coaches, one of the first questions posed to Slack was whose idea it was for her to embark on such a potentially energy-sapping and gruelling schedule.

“This was my idea, I wanted to do it,” she said. “This is my final year in college and I won everything and wanted to go out with a bang,” said the athlete, who also won the Division Two Indoors Track Athlete of the Year award as well as Field Event Athlete of the Year.

“All my coach did was to make sure I got more rest before the event and during the Outdoor Championships. I would go back to the hotel if time allowed between events and rest,” she said. “I did not feel tired when I was at the track, the adrenaline was high, but once I got to the hotel at nights I would go straight to sleep.”

She said her preparation was basically the same except for the addition of the 400m hurdles which she added to her schedule this year.

“We did not do anything extra during the preparation and at the championships, the coach was with me all the time and made sure I did as little as possible,” she said, pointing out she was supposed to do just one attempt in each of the field events, but at time would ask for a second if she was not pleased with the first try.

Slack was forced to take a break in early May after an injury at the Mt Sac Relays, but noted that she has her eyes set on competing at the World University Games in Korea, July 3-15 and the IAAF World Championships in Beijing, China, August 22-30.

Her personal best of 6,141 points in the Heptathlon done this year is over the 6,075 qualifying standard for the World Championships.

With the wear and tear on the body that the multi-event can inflict, Slack might be looking for a new event to extend her competitive years and said the 400m hurdles might be the event she will focus on.

“I really love the Heptathlon,” she said, adding “it is my favourite, but after so many injuries I need to find a new event.”

She basically used her natural speed and strength to run the event, explaining she has not learnt to ‘hurdle’ yet, “I was just jumping over the hurdles and running,” Slack said.