HAVING recovered from the broken foot which she suffered at this year’s Penn Relays in Philadelphia in April, national junior representative Samantha Pryce is scheduled to leave the island this week to take up a full four-year scholarship at Benedict College in the United States.

The 19-year-old Pryce suffered the horrific injury when she was tripped on the first leg of the final of the Championships of America 4x800m event while representing Holmwood Technical on April 29.

Pryce told the Jamaica Observer that she had received a number of scholarship offers from overseas colleges but she decided to sign with Benedict College because they have been supporting her a lot during her recovery process.

“First, before my injury and everything, I got a lot of scholarship offers but seeing that this coach [at Benedict] reached out to me before and after my injury I just said, ‘Okay, let me just settle down with them,’ ” said Pryce.

“At times it is really hard to have documents to send to different schools and everything and so [the fact] that this school reaches out to me after my injuries and up to this day he [coach] still reaches out to me, because he has always been there for me during the tough times,” she explained about her choice.

Pryce said while choosing Benedict had an element of sentiment, there was a also a measure of calculated assessment.

“It is a full scholarship. And seeing that I have four years I can do one or two years there and then step higher, and so I just say ‘Okay, let me just take this instead of going to a junior college,’ ” Pryce said.

The soft-spoken Pryce shared that she will be pursuing a bachelor’s degree in business and management administration at Benedict College, which is located in Columbia, South Carolina.

She noted that she has been working out with Holmwood Head Coach Dave Anderson while she continues her rehabilitation from the injury.

“I would say that I am fully recovered but the running is not going to be a hundred (per cent)…it will be like seventy per cent,” said Pryce.

Before the injury in April, Pryce had won the 3,000m and the 2,000m steeplechase at the Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships in April.

She also won the 3,000m and finished second in the 1500m at the Carifta Games, which was held at the National Stadium in Kingston a week later.

Pryce stated that she is not in any rush to return to the track competitively, and will instead be focusing a lot of her energies on her studies.

“I am not just focusing on the running, I will be focusing on the academics [and] that is where I am going to be putting most of my interest because it is going to be like I am starting all over again due to the injury,” she ended

— Robert Bailey