DESPITE starting her preparation later than usual, Oneika Brissett is in a hurry to get back to her best and reclaim her dream that was cruelly snatched from her grasp last year.

Brissett was on her way to the airport to leave with the Jamaican team to the World Athletics Under-20 championships in Nairobi, Kenya, last year when she took ill and was unable to join her teammates.

Brissett, who represented Rusea’s High last year, said she is using that setback to motivate her for this season.

“I was disappointed,” she told the Jamaica Observer last Saturday after winning the Class 1 girls’ 400m and 800m double at the County of Cornwall Athletics Association (COCAA) Western Championships at the St Elizabeth Technical Sports Complex.

“I trained very hard and the very day I was supposed to leave, I was not allowed — and this year I have set my mind to do better,” she said, adding she has her eye on a place on the Jamaica team to the Carifta Games, for which the trials are currently underway.

Brissett, the Montego Bay native who is now wearing the colours of William Knibb Memorial, said she was “satisfied” with her performance last weekend, running 58.28 seconds to win the 400m and 2:20.50 minutes for the 800m, some what short of her season-best performances.

“Today I did not run my best times but that is okay, I just wanted to win. I just started training recently and I have some work to do,” she told the Observer.

—Paul A Reid