The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

She made her debut at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. But after going through a whirlwind of training sites, Pedrya Seymour feels she’s right where she needs to be to get ready for her second appearance at the games in Tokyo, Japan, in August.

Home for a brief visit this week after competing at the Miramar South Florida Invitational on Saturday, Seymour said she was surprised the way she opened her season with a legal time of 12.88 seconds to trail Devynne Charlton, who did 12.84 to match the Olympic qualifying standard in the preliminaires.

In the final where all of the times were wind-aided, Charlton ran 12.85 for sixth place and Seymour was seventh with 13.00, while American world record holder Kendra Harrison won in 12.38.

Having already qualified prior to the postponement of the games in 2020 due to the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, Seymour said she’s glad that Charlton, her arch-rival and friend, has now attained the qualifying standard as well.

“It’s good. We just actually talked about how we both look forward to competing against each other,” Seymour said. “We are both back with our college coaches, so this year I think we will be ready to do well at the Bahamas Nationals and just to represent the Bahamas at the Olympics.

“It’s good to have a team-mate and training partner having qualified. It really helps.”

Seymour, a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is the national record holder in the event, having posted her mark of 12.64 at her initial appearance at the Olympics in Rio on August 17, 2016.

Having gone through the collegiate stage in Illinois, Seymour said it’s good to see current stars like Charisma Taylor at Washington State and Sasha Wells at Oral Roberts and others, making a push for one of the spots on the team for Tokyo.

“The Bahamas has had some good hurdlers, but I think this new wave of hurdlers will only make it more interesting,” she said. “So it’s good to see that more hurdlers are rising up and in the future, we could have a hurdles relay like we did when I was in college.”

Since leaving college, Seymour has moved around and now has reunited with her former Illinois’ coach, Randy Gillon, now an assistant coach at Auburn University where she is currently training.

“I left Illinois in 2017 and I’ve been with two other coaches and when I came back to my old coach, he (Gillon) told me that my technique was bad,” Seymour said. “So I had to work hard to get back to where I am right now.

“I know a lot of people may be expecting fast times, I expect them too, but it’s been a process and people don’t know what I went through or how hard I’ve worked to get myself back to where I need to be this year.”

From Illinois, Seymour, who turns 26 on May 29, has moved to Texas, to Orlando and now she’s in Alabama. “Just being in a college town (in Auburn) where nothing is around and Atlanta is about one hour and 30 minutes away, I have to really focus on my craft and what I am doing,” she said.

“Being far away from my family has also been tough and not having friends around, but I believe God has me isolated for a reason, just for me to focus on what I’m doing.”

And with the meet being in Fort Lauderdale, Seymour decided to make a short trek home to spend a couple of days here this week.

“I’m going on the dock to get me some crack conch,” said Seymour, who will also use the opportunity to do some training at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium.

This weekend as she returns to Auburn to continue her training, Seymour said she may run the 200 metres to work on her speed. But she added that she will compete in her next 100m hurdles race on April 24.

Seymour is the daughter of Pedro and Cecily Seymour and has a deceased brother, Keron Dean, whom she dedicated her season to going into the 2016 Olympics.