TORTOLA—Tahesia Harrigan stumbled out the blocks, then fought back to finish second behind St. Croix’s Laverne Jones in the Cork City Sports 100 meters in Ireland on Saturday.

Jones led the 1-2 Virgin Islands finish in 11.35 with Harrigan following in 11.49. Harrigan she has been working technical flaws after a foot injury kept her out of competition since winning the IAAF World Indoor Championships 60 meters bronze medal on March 7.

“At the beginning of the race I stumbled twice so that threw me off a bit,” Harrigan recalled. “I feel that I am definitely ready to run a better time considering what happened today.  My coach was here with me and he has pointed out some stuff that I was probably doing wrong in my previous races.”

The great thing Harrigan said is that she was able to make some of the changes.  What is really needed she said, is to get down in the beginning of her race. “ What use to be the strong part of my race is now the most problematic part,” she noted. “I will continue to work on it though.  I know my times are slow and that is because of my injury.  I need to get my race rhythm back and that will come with time.  I am still looking forward to the end of my season, especially the Olympics.”

On her European Tour, Harrigan has also run 11.46, 11.53 in previous races.
Harrigan and Jones will run in Liege and Huesden, Belgium on July 16 and 21 respectively. Jones will compete in both sprints. On Aug 16, they will begin the qualifying rounds of the Olympic Games 100 meters.