JERRABOMBERRA swimmer Amy Sokic was so focused on hitting the wall first in her 50m breaststroke final at last weekend’s National Schools Championships in Sydney, she didn’t even notice the pain growing in her hip.
That came afterwards. In an impressive display of skill mixed with plenty of guts and determination, Sokic was forced to push through the pain barrier as she claimed a long sought-after individual gold medal in her pet event.
The 12-year-old was beaten into silver by the narrowest of margins at last year’s championships but was able to go one better this time around despite battling injury concerns in the lead-up.
Sokic pulled the growth plate off her hip bone while competing at an athletics event at the AIS last year.
Further complicating matters for the talented breaststroker, the tear then failed to heal properly leaving the Merici College student with a build-up of fluid around her hip joint and in need of regular injections.
“I had some injections before nationals [last weekend] and they seemed to be helping and then after my heats the day before the 50m final my hip started hurting again,” she said.
For the full story see this week's edition of The Queanbeyan Age.