200m Queen aiming for big things in 2015
November 2014 (T&T Newsday)
TRINIDAD AND Tobago’s 2012 200-metre queen Kai Selvon, graduated from Auburn University earlier this year with an honours degree.The 22-year-old Auburn alumni graduated in May with an honours degree in industrial design. And she talks about the transition from student athlete to professional during the 2014 track and field season while balancing a career on the track..
She made mention of the difficultly in being a student athlete and trying to maintain good grades, and representing Trinidad and Tobago at the highest level.
The 200 metres specialist with a personal best of 22.85 seconds, is also a strong competitor in the 100m in which she has a personal best of 11.21 seconds, fast enough to be among the top three women in the country and a place on the women’s 4x100-metre relay team. At the age of 20, Selvon represented TT at the 2012 London Olympics in the 200m where she made it to the semi-final round while finishing .fifth in 23.04 seconds which was not good enough to qualify for the final. Last year she again reached the semi-final in the 200m at the 14th IAAF World Championships, but finished seventh in 23.21 seconds.
The 2014 season proved to be a difficult year for the Auburn student, faced with the challenge of getting assignments done and keeping up with training.
“I took the first part of the season off to graduate, which I did with a 4.0 GPA.(honours),” Selvon said. “That was the good part of the season, but starting late I got injured when I was in prime shape so it was a little disappointing and discouraging. I tried to stick it out but the pain was too much so I decided to end my season,” she said.
She found balancing school and track too difficult but knew she needed something to fall back on after track, which allowed her to stay focused on graduating.
“Balancing school and track was challenging but was not impossible, I had to stay determined and stay focused and keep reminding myself of my goals because I had this thought in my mind.
“What if something happens to me in terms of track. What would I fall back on?
“So I knew I had to stay persistent in terms of doing the school work so I can have my degree to fall back on,” Selvon said.
She went on to compare the work load of being a collegiate athlete to being a professional athlete and said its almost the same.
“Being a professional is almost the same as collegiate athlete because it’s very hard with meets every weekend and then you have to come back to reality, where you have to study your work and prepare for exams and do make up work for the stuff that you missed,” Selvon explained to Selvon trains with former 100m national champion Marc Burn at Auburn who she says helped her in her journey and give training a home-like environment.
“Marc makes it feels like home and became like a brother to me, he made sure everything was alright and with him being there it made feel I have someone to relate to,” Selvon indicated. Her goals for next year is to run a sub 11 seconds in the 100 metres and make the finals of the 2015 IAAF World Championships in Beijing, China.
When asked about the women’s 4x100m relay team she expressed confidence about their potential for next year. “We got a feel of what we are capable of last year and this year God’s willing with everyone getting faster, I think we could do some damage,” she ended.
