Bobby-Gaye Wilkins

With time winding down on the two-year ban she received in 2010 after testing positive for a banned substance, at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Doha, Jamaican 400m athlete Bobby-Gaye Wilkins is embracing a fresh opportunity and casting aside the demons of her past.

Wilkins, who recently returned to Jamaica and is now a member of the Racers Track and Field Club, saw her career stall when andarine, a selective androgen receptor modulator, was identified in her sample in Doha.

The Beijing Olympics 4x400m bronze medalist, Wilkins, although admitting that her time away from competition makes it difficult for her to gauge her current abilities, the former Holmwood Technical student-athlete is hopeful of celebrating her return with an Olympic berth.

"The focus now is to get back in shape and hopefully if I am good enough, I will make the Olympic team. I just have to stay focused and get back to where I was before," said Wilkins.

"I don't really know where I am just yet or how difficult it will be in terms of competing but I am just working hard and waiting to see where it can take me. You have to have the heart and mind to go there and do your best, and I have them both."

50.91 seconds was the best time she placed during the outdoor season prior to her ban, but she has gone faster, with her personal best standing at 50.87.

Five Jamaicans bettered that time last season so Wilkins will have her work cut out for her as she gets rid of the competitive cobwebs.

Nonetheless, she is clinging to the positives, of course, always mindful of the problems she has had to overcome.

"It (drug ban) was really hard for me, I was actually at a breaking point and I didn't think I would come back but I had the support of my husband. I really have to give God thanks for him and those close to me like my family and real friends," Wilkins said.

"Once you have a second chance it's always a good feeling, I am just happy for life and for a second chance and I am just going out there to do me and to make my family and friends and everyone who supported me throughout the difficult period proud," she added.

Wilkins, who also represented Jamaica at the 2005 IAAF World Youth Championships, where she made the final of the 400m as well as the World Indoor Championships, where she also made the semi-finals in addition to helping Jamaica to a national indoor record 3:28.49 for third place, underscored her delight at once again being among familiar faces.

"There is no place like home and so once I am back I know that I have taken the first real step in moving forward and as far as I am concerned, the past is the past and I am just looking to focus on the future right now," noted Wilkins, who celebrated her 23rd birthday late last year.

"My family has always supported me throughout my troubles, friends have been there but you know that only true friends are there through thick and thin, but it's a part of life and I have to stay tough and move on. We live and we learn," Wilkins added.