Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie in the Osaka quarterfinals (© Getty Images)
A month ago, Debbie FergusonMcKenzie was battling the effects of chicken pox, but as she bowed out of the individual events in Osaka on the sixth day of competition, she also began the countdown to the end of her outstanding career.
If the clock is thrown forward two years, one of the Bahamas’ greatest athletes will be bowing out as she plans to retire after the 12th World Championships in Athletics in Berlin.
From now on, focus will be solely on 200m
But in the meantime, Ferguson-McKenzie, 31, is going to concentrate only on the 200m, despite failing to make the final tonight.
She was seventh in the second semi-final last night in 23.37 as American Sanya Richards won in 22.50.
Ferguson-McKenzie had been knocked out at the same stage of the 100m on Monday and she said: “I have come to a point where I am going to stop doubling at these major championships and focus more on the 200m.”
“It is a combination of things (including age),” she continued. “But it is more so that every year I try, I know I can run the 100m. I put so much pressure on myself and it does not work out. So (I will) focus on the 200m, to get it done. I am better at it and I will give it my all.”
Osaka is the sixth IAAF World Championships where Ferguson-McKenzie has run, having made her debut in Gothenburg in 1995 and missing only Helsinki since then.
She is a member of the IAAF Athletes’ Commission and she has had fantastic success on this World Championship stage.
Numerous career highlights – more to come?
Ferguson-McKenzie won relay gold in Seville in 1999, silver in Edmonton two years later and in between helped the Bahamas to the top of the podium in the relay at the Olympic Games in Sydney.
In Manchester in 2002, she won the sprint double at the Commonwealth Games before finishing third in the 200m at the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004.
And with her triumphs, have come some amazing rewards.
As she caught her breath after her race Thursday night, she reflected on a career where she was the silver medallist at the Central American and Caribbean Games in San Juan, Puerto Rico, 14 years ago.
“I would have three highlights,” she said. “In 2000, when we won that gold in Sydney, I was part of a team and I felt what it is like when you work hard. That hard work paid off and it changed my life in everything - in track and field and home.”
“The ‘celebrity’ status was fantastic with the way people treated us. Our pictures were up when you walked through the airport, and the Bahamian government gave us a piece of land which, apart from breath, is the second best gift I have ever had in my life. Wherever you went, people respected you.”
“Second for me is my bronze medal in 2004 and while I won silver in Edmonton, third will be the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002.”
“I am hoping to go to 2009, getting through the Olympics first, and though I am not making any excuses about here, I had to sit out the whole of July when I could not train because I had chicken pox. That hurt me big time.”
Her lack of training was too much on Thursday, but not enough to take away her bright smile, which will be lost to the track in two years time.
Richard Lewis for the IAAF
