According to just about everyone who's watched her perform, Saint Lucian horizontal jumper Sandisha Antoine has world-class talent. Unfortunately, the 21-year-old has also had bad luck with injuries over the years, but she may have hinted at a return to form with her latest result.
Originally from Belle Vue, Vieux Fort, but currently resident on the neighbouring island of Martinique, an overseas department of France, Sandisha won back-to-back CARIFTA titles in the under-20 women's Triple Jump in 2009 and 2010. In 2009, she won at the George Odlum National Stadium, a stone's throw from her birthplace, and with her family cheering her on. A year later, she repeated as champion in Georgetown, Cayman Islands.
Whilst suffering through an injury-riddled 2011, Sandisha continued her accountancy and management studies at DCG Lycée Joseph Gaillard in Fort-De-France, Martinique. She is scheduled to complete her degree in 2013.
On Saturday, at the Meeting de l'Aiglon du Lamentin, in the Stade George Gratient Lamentin, Sandisha took to the runway for the first time in months. She did so in triumphant fashion, winning the Triple Jump with a distance of 12.54m. The effort was well short of her National Record mark of 12.78m, but Sandisha if confident that this is but a sign of things to come. "I think that I can do better with some more training," she said.
In the Long Jump, Sandisha picked up a second wind, clearing 6.17m with a wind of -0.9 metres per second. The mark is a career-best performance from Sandisha, though nowhere close to the excellent standards established by Michelle Baptiste when she was still just a junior athlete as a freshman at what was then Southwest Missouri State University. Michelle's 6.47m remains the women's National Record.
Still, it's great to see Sandisha back in action, and she has had a very encouraging late start to her 2012 season. With National Championships coming up in Saint Lucia in June, and possibly the North & Central American and Caribbean Athletics Confederation (NACAC) Under-23 Championships in early July in Guanajuato, Mexico, she will certainly be pleased with the foundation she set this weekend.
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