Sheldon LongleySend an emailAugust 31, 2022 389 2 minute readFacebookTwitterLinkedInShare via Email
Bahamian Anthonique Strachan continues to perform well in 2022, turning in one of her better seasons, if not the best, of her athletics career.
Strachan won the women’s 200 meters (m) at the Spitzen Leichtathletik Luzern at Stadion Allmend in Lucerne, Switzerland, on Tuesday, and she did it out of lane eight, running another sub-23 second race – her fifth of the year.
Strachan, 29, clocked 22.68 seconds, topping a very tough world-class field in Lucerne. Aminatou Seyni, of Niger, was a close second in 22.71 seconds, and American Jenna Prandini rounded out the top three in 22.82 seconds. Also in the race were Americans Brittany Brown and Tamara Clark and hometown favorite Mujinga Kambundji of Switzerland – a finalist at the last three global championships including a bronze medal finish at the Doha World Championships in 2019.
Strachan got out of the blocks fast, came around the bend in good position and powered home to her third-fastest time of the year. Coming around the bend, she appeared in line with the frontrunners in the race. Strachan’s better part of her 200m race has always been the homestretch and she proved that true to form in Lucerne yesterday, powering to the finish.
The win was truly significant as it was her first in Europe, in any event, as a senior athlete. She had tremendous success as a junior athlete, but due to injuries and other issues, she was never able to duplicate that success on the senior side.
This season, despite battling injuries, Strachan has been fantastic, running the three fastest times of her career in the women’s 100m, and her fastest time in the women’s 200m in eight years. The former double sprint World Junior Champion became just the seventh Bahamian ever, joining the five ‘Golden Girls’ and Shaunae Miller-Uibo, to run under 11 seconds in the women’s 100m, and she did it twice in 2022.
Strachan clocked a then personal best time of 10.99 seconds at the John Wolmer Speed Fest in Kingston, Jamaica, earlier this year, and then ran a new personal best time of 10.98 seconds and just missing out on the final at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, in July.
In the women’s 200m, as mentioned, Strachan has run her fastest time in eight years, clocking 22.55 seconds at the MVP (Maximizing Velocity and Power) Velocity Fest in Kingston, earlier this year. She defeated former World Champion in that event, the legendary Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, of Jamaica, in that race. It was the first time she’s beaten Fraser-Pryce in her career.
Strachan is tied for sixth with Miller-Uibo on the all-time list for Bahamians in the women’s 100m, and she is tied for fourth with Savatheda Fynes in the women’s 200m.
Strachan was just shy of advancing to her first global final in Eugene this year, and is looking for a strong finish to 2022. She is tied for 15th in the Diamond League standings in the women’s 200m with just one meet remaining before the two-day Diamond League Final in Zürich, Switzerland.
Strachan was the only Bahamian in action at the Swiss meet yesterday.