Allyson Felix struggled through her first race in 13 months but declared herself happy to be back after scraping into the 400m semi-finals on the opening day of the US Championships here Thursday.
More than a year after her last outing as a professional, the 33-year-old Felix is back on the comeback trail at Drake University this week, hoping to win a berth on the US team for September's World Championships in Doha.
Felix, the only woman to win six Olympic track and field gold medals, is returning to the sport following her pregnancy and birth of her daughter in November.
However the comeback didn't go as smoothly as planned on Thursday, finishing fourth in her heat in a time of 52.20sec, well outside her personal best of 49.26 set in 2015.
That left the veteran former 200m and 400m world champion sweating on the outcome of other races to confirm her spot in the next round.
"It felt rusty, kind of to be expected," Felix said afterwards. "I haven't raced in a long time. It's going to take some time to get back into it."
- 'A starting point -
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- Showdown in doubt -
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"There's definitely some things I can clean up."
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