Bowden fighting jinx

Press, 13 April 1989, Page 29

Bowden fighting jinx

Two hamstring injuries in one season seemed like more than just bad luck to the Canterbury sprinter, Scott Bowden. He believed there had to be a reason for them — and now he thinks he knows why. For a man who has been nudging the Commonwealth Games’ qualifying time for. the 100 and 200 metres, the injuries came at a particularly bad time. At the start of the 1988-89 season Bowden tore a hamstring and did not compete until mid-January. That month he was selected for the New Zealand 4 x 100 m relay team to compete against Australian teams at Canberra. Two days before he was due to leave, injury struck

again and a disappointed Bowden was forced to withdraw from the team. His injuries were getting in the way of his carefully formulated programme for the Commonwealth Games. And as a recipient of an A.G.C. Young Achiever’s Award to help him train for the Games, Bowden was conscious of the fact a lot of people had expressed their faith in his ability. That’s when Bowden began to think there had to be some reason for the recurring hamstring injuries. Bowden says he consulted a physiotherapist, Brian McKenzie, of Christchurch, who diagnosed a curvature of the spine which caused him to take his power from the

back and not from his hips. Bowden says the physiotherapist was amazed that he had achieved his 10.56 s 100 m junior record, running as he did. Bowden is now doing a programme of weight training and speed work which should correct the problem and allow him to realise his potential in sprint events. The news is encouraging for Bowden who in spite of running in only nine events during the season — and doing it all wrong — came close to Games qualification times in both the 100 m and the 200 m. In one 100 m race he ran his second fastest time — 10.69 s — which is only 0.5 s outside the Games qualifying time.