Scotland's quickest-ever woman is back and ready to run fast

The National

15 hours ago

She was in constant, excruciating pain and even lying in bed was unbearably sore.
It was quite a contrast for the Scot who, just a few years earlier, had established herself as the fastest Scottish woman in history and was, it seemed, on her way to becoming a truly world class sprinter.
But just as she was peaking, the worst of luck struck Rees.
In the summer of 2023, only a few months after setting a new Scottish indoor 60m record (she was already Scottish 100m record holder), Rees tore her hamstring.
In itself, this would be a serious enough setback but more bad fortune was to follow, with Rees being diagnosed with arthritis in her pelvis which, it turned out, was the source of her crippling pain.
Given her physical issues, it's perhaps no surprise that the Edinburgh AC athlete began to accept that her career as an elite runner may have been halted just as she was hitting her peak.
'This time last year, I really wasn't sure if I would ever compete again because I couldn't even walk without pain,' the 26-year-old says.
'I would go to the track to do rehab and watch people running and I just couldn't ever imagine that being me again.
'It was a really tough time because I was still turning up to training, but I didn't feel like I was in the sport anymore.'
Rees admits that the prospect of hanging up her spikes for good was a 'constant thought' but it was watching the Paris Olympics last summer that persuaded her to give athletics one more shot.
'Last year, I became a 'normal person', not an athlete and I had a good time but when the Olympics was on television I thought, yes, I've had a fun summer but I want to give it another go because I still had a real drive to compete at major championships,' she says.
'Giving up would have been the easy option, and I think me a few years ago would have quit but I didn't want to reach the end of my career and feel like I hadn't given it everything.'
A change of medication kick-started a recovery that saw Rees tentatively return to training and turn of the year went encouragingly smoothly, to the point that she felt able to dip her toe back into the world of competitive sprinting.
Alisha Rees is Scottish women's 100m record holder (Image: Alex Livesey/ Getty Images)
In the past two months, Rees has raced six times and while she's not producing the sort of times she was at her very best - her fastest time this season is 11.78 seconds in comparison to her Scottish record of 11.30 seconds - when she takes a step back she's able to appreciate the distance she's travelled since this time last year.
'It's strange being back competing, because you forget what it's like. Before my first race back, I couldn't sleep the night before because I was so nervous,' she says.
'But it's so good to be back. I know it will take time to get close to where I was before, but it's very hard to be patient.
'I've got faster nearly every time I've raced, though, and I do believe that by the end of the season, I'll be in a position where I'm happy with how I'm running.'
There will, Rees hopes, be further improvement in her performance within the coming weeks, which will lay the foundations for a strong performance at the British Championships in August, which is where her injury issues began two years ago. She is, however, reluctant to set too many long-term goals - her injury issues make it impossible to know just how her body will cope with the stresses and strains of elite-level sprinting - and so her focus remains on appreciating her health and fitness and any success on the track will be a welcome, and well-deserved, bonus.
'I'm enjoying the sport again, which is so nice because last year it was a very unenjoyable time,' she says.
'I'm happy to be turning up at training and able to do the sessions, so I'm feeling good.
'There's the Commonwealth Games next year but this time, I'm in a very different position from where I was a year out from the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
'Obviously, I would love to target an individual spot in the team next year, but at the moment it's hard to know if that's realistic or not because I've still not raced much.
'There's also the chance to go for a relay spot, which would be amazing too, because a home Games will obviously be amazing.
'The goal for this year was to get back racing and I've already hit that target so it'll be nice to see where I can go from here.'