by Stuart Weir
Geoff Wightman interviews Perry Shakes-Drayton at BAWA Awards, photo by Stuart Weir
In his second article on the British Athletic Writers Awards, Stuart Weir writes on the absolute athletic oddysey of Perry Shakes-Drayton, her injuries, her belief in herself and positive view of life. The piece is truly inspirational.
Perri Shakes-Drayton
The BAWA Inspiration award at the recent British Athletics Writers’ Association (BAWA) Awards in London went to Perri Shakes-Drayton. When Shakes-Drayton ran the third leg in the 4 by 400 relay heat at the 2017 World Championships, it was 3 days short of four years since her last championship run, the final of the 400H at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow. To see her back on the track, a reward for perseverance and a never-say-die attitude, pleased a lot of British Athletics fans.
At the time of the injury, Shakes-Drayton was in the form of her life. She had won bronze in the 2011 European Championships. In 2012 she had anchored GB 4 by 400 relay team to a rare gold and victory over USA, holding off Sanya Richards-Ross on that final leg in the World Indoors in Istanbul.
Immediately after the injury she was told by doctors that her career as a hurdler was over. She recalled: “I was upset but I said: ‘OK I’ll put that behind me'”. The diagnosis was damaged cartilage in the knee and a torn posterior cruciate ligament.
The next few months were quite traumatic: “To start with I had to be non-weight bearing for three months and at times I was in a wheelchair to make life easier because being on crutches was quite tiring after a while – even though it improved my upper body strength. I had to re-arrange my house and live downstairs because I couldn’t go up the stairs”.
After about six months, she was able to put weight on the knee: “I did a lot of gym sessions, working on my other leg too so that it stayed strong while wanting to the left leg to catch up with the right”.
At the 2010 European Championships in Barcelona, Perri had won individual and relay medals. Four years on, it was a different story: “While the 2014 European championship was happening, I went over to the States to work with a physio. I made great progress it was all about balance and trusting the knee, trying to challenge the knee in different directions when it came to balancing. I had to learn to walk again, like a child”.
She continued to make progress: “I remember the day that I was able to cycle, when I knew that I was getting full motion in the knee. It was January 2015 before I started to run for the first time. It wasn’t smooth but it was a building block. But as I was making progress something else went wrong with my knee and I had to go back and have surgery. I had a plica removed and got a screw in my knee. That set me back a bit”.
She ran for the first time in June 2016 – 2 years 9 months after the injury – in a low key race in Germany. She had hoped to make the 2016 Olympics but another injury put an end to that.
Looking back, she told me: “If someone had told me it would take four years to get back to where I needed to be, it probably would have been a different story. I would probably have thought, ‘forget that’ but being the person I am and also all the time I was making progress and I was thinking I’m closer, I’m closer, even though I didn’t feel like myself. I was telling myself: ‘this is how I am going to feel for the rest of my life. My knee is never going to feel the same and I accepted that. So when I was able to run, I was managing my knee. I thought: ‘OK I can manage it’ and I told myself: ‘for the rest of my life I’m going to have to manage it’. As time went on I was feeling better and better. My body was getting better and stringer. At every stage I kept feeling better”.
She is amazing at seeing positives in everything: “I’m looking forward to the winter. For the first time for four years I’m going into winter without having to do rehab or prehab and I can get straight into it”.
Her reward for all the hard work is a first visit to Australia, where she will run the 4 by 400 relay in April 2018’s Commonwealth Games.
