Oregon daily emerald., April 22, 1998, Page 9, Image 9

Track: Sprinter needs
to regain confidence
■ Continued from Page 7
a fifth-place individual finish in
the Pac-10 400 and a third-place
effort in the Canadian National
Championships and Commis
siong was racing through a stellar
career.
Her third 100 meters on Satur
day also went well, as did most of
her junior season during which
she won the Harry Ritchie Award
as the top female scorer for Ore
gon and finished third at the
Canadian Olympic Trials in both
the 200 and 400.
But when she rounded the
third turn and entered the final
100 meters at the Pepsi Invitation
al last week, Commissiong made
a tactical error in her stride length
that affected her entire race. Al
though the setback was merely
mental, the timing eerily recalled
the end of her junior campaign,
when she began to feel a strange
pain in her knee.
That pain, like the error on Sat
urday, ruined the final quarter of
her career.
After first noticing the knee in
jury in July 1996, Commissiong
spent the next few months franti
cally preparing for what she
hoped would be an All-American
senior campaign. The injury
proved too much to overcome
through conventional rehabilita
tion measures, though, and Com
missiong elected to have surgery
in December 1996 to relieve the
pain ofbone friction.
The procedure and subsequent
arduous rehabilitation process
forced Commissiong to sit out the
entire 1997 track and field season,
what should have been her fourth
and final campaign for the Ducks.
But unlike her 400 meters at the
Pepsi meet, Commissiong’s race
is not over. By using a medical
redshirt option, she has been
granted an extra 100 meters to
prove her abilities to her team
mates, her coaches and herself.
The challenges of returning
from a year-long layoff are numer
ous. Although Commissiong be
lieves her body to be in peak con
dition, the true test involves
learning how to compete again
and living up to the reputation
she made for herself when
healthy.
"A lot of people remember that
I had a good year in '96, and then I
vanished,” Commissiong says. “I
worked as hard as I have probably
in my entire life last year, but you
can’t learn how to compete until
you’re out there doing it.”
That process has hampered
Commissiong’s ability to reach
the time standards she was setting
as an underclassman.
“The hard part is being able to
stay tuned in and focused and
I
Commissiong f ile
■ YEAH:
Senior
Graduate
Student
■ SIZE:
5-10
■ HOME:
Montreal,
Quebec
CAREER NOTES:
■ 1998: Recorded season best
54.81 for 400 meters at Stan
ford lnvitatfonal...ran season
best 24.32 for 200 meters
against Washington State
■ 1997: Missed season as
medical redshirt after undergo
ing knee surgery in Dec. 1996
■ 1996: Qualified for NCAA
Championships at 400 meters
...finished third at Canadian
Olympic Trials in both 400 and
200 meters...Ritchie Award as
Oregon’s top female scorer
■ 1995: Named All-American
after anchoring Oregon's fifth
place 4x400-meter relay squad
at NCAAs...ran (eg on second
place 4x100 relay at Pacific-10
Conference Championships
■ 1994: Competed in 100,200
and 400 meters as a freshman
...named to Pac-10 all-acade
mic first team with 3.86 GPA
fearless, which I’m not yet and I
used to be," she says.
Oregon assistant coach Mark
Stream says Commissiong is tech
nically fine but needs to regain
that confidence.
“A lot of it is learning how to
trust yourself again,” Stream says.
When that happens, both
Stream and Commissiong believe
she can score valuable points at
the Pac-lOs and, hopefully, the
NCAAs. Even more intriguing is
Commissiong’s goal of going back
to the Canadian Olympic Trials
and earning a spot as a 400 runner
in Sydney for the 2000 Olympics,
and possibly even the 2004
games.
Besides the 400, Commissiong
is also an exceptional 200-meter
runner for Oregon, and in essence
the last two years of her career
have resembled a sprint at that
distance. After taking almost a
full year off from running, Com
missiong stepped back into the
blocks last April, heard the
starter’s pistol fire once again,
struggled to reach her top speed
in rehab this past offseason sea
son and is flying through that fi
nal, extra 100 meters in 1998.
Rob Moseley is a sports reporter for
the Emerald.
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