I'M OFFICIALLY.........IN LIMBO!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I took my flight back to Orlando today and unfortunately the news is not good. It is also not bad. To be honest, my fate is unknown. I did NOT win my Olympic Trials. The collegiate girl that I had mentioned in my prior post ended up setting a personal best and winning the long jump. To say that I am extremely disappointed and disheartened at the moment would be a HUGE understatement. I did not compete well. I am physically prepared and so I have no excuses. My technique fell apart and that proved to be my undoing. I finished 2nd by 5ins. and although the Olympics does allow for three representatives from each country, there are a lot of qualification requirements and standards that are far too detailed to get into right now.

Suffice to say, as of right now, I am tentatively on The Bahamas Olympic team and the girl that won is not, reason being I have the Olympic B qualifying standard and she does not. She has one further opportunity to make the standard and should she do so, then I would then be forced to make the A standard which is 9cm further than my current qualifying mark. Slightly confusing yes, but these are the facts as best as I can explain them. The deadline for qualification for the Olympic Games for the Bahamas team is July 8 and so we are both under the gun. I needed to have won. I should have won and I did not.

I barely slept two hours last night and now my pity party is over. I have work to do. I also have one further opportunity to take my destiny in my own hands and I intend to rectify what went wrong yesterday. The test of a true athlete is not that you fail, but moreso, how you respond to that defeat. I am not a quitter. Never have been, don't plan on starting now. First, let me say thanks to all of you who read my blog and have lent me your support and good wishes, in spite of the fact that I am not an American.

I am however, going to disallow any comments for this post or any others that I may write until my fate is known next weekend. I do hope you understand but I cannot allow myself to wallow in empathy or sympathy right now because it comforts the pain, it eases the reality, it dulls the harshness of it all and I need to deal with the stark truth. My back is against the wall and I am nothing if not a fighter. I have been here before. I qualified for the 2000 Olympics in my last chance meet, on my last jump and ended up going to the Olympics and finishing 7th in Sydney out of a stellar field of 40 plus of the world's best jumpers so I know how to get the job done.

It's funny, as I was standing in line at the airport today, the lady right in front of me was wearing a t-shirt and on the back it said, "Don't Quit! Fight the Good Fight of Faith." I Timothy 6, vs. 12. Call it karma, call it fate but there's a reason she stood before me. I can choose to lay down quietly or I can choose to fight for my life and I choose to fight.

All I ask for right now are your prayers and I in turn will do my best to ensure that I make that trip to Beijing. Thank you all for your understanding. Your Bahamian long jump friend.....