T&T's sprinter Michelle-Lee Ahye put all distractions of the past two years behind her and returned to the track on Friday to place third in the women's 200 metres at the West Coast Relays in Fresno, California, USA.
She opened up her season with a time of 23.47 seconds to finish behind the University of New Mexico's Tianna Holmes (23.22) and Boise State's Anita Taviore (23.25) in heat five, the fastest in as many heats in the timed finals.
Ahye served out her two-year suspension after a whereabouts violation, which started on April 19, 2019 and ended on April 18, 2021, some three months ahead of the start of the Tokyo Olympic Games in Japan. The premier sporting event is scheduled to take place from July 23 to August 8.
Ahye was penalised for missing three drug tests on June 23, 2018, February 23, 2019 and April 19, 2019.
The postponement of the Olympics Games by one year due to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic worked in favour of Ahye because if the Games had gone ahead as planned last year, the T&T sprinter would have been unable to compete.
Ahye now has the opportunity to qualify for the Olympics and she made a great start on the weekend.