Promising middle-distance runner Patrina Swan may have to return to sprinting in order to save a running career that has been threatened by a nagging back injury.

The latest flare up came on Friday night in the Bank of Butterfield Mile when the 16-year-old Berkeley student had to pull out because of the injury which only surfaces when she runs longer distances.

Swan, the winner of the 1996 secondary schools mile, was hoping to mark her last appearance as a student by winning another title. Instead she found herself in an ambulance on her way to hospital after the pain in her lower back became unbearable about two thirds of the way through the race.

"I felt all right and was running at a comfortable pace but when I turned around (at the longtails) and was coming back up it started hurting me a little bit but I kept on running. Then it came to a point where I just couldn't run anymore,'' explained Swan.

Her stay at the hospital was brief and they sent her home. By the next day she was walking normally again.

"It depends on the distance I run,'' she said. "If I was to do a sprint I wouldn't feel it. If I wasn't to run it wouldn't hurt me.'' Swan said she had asked her Pacers coach, Cal Simons, about switching to sprints, which is what she did when she first started running.

"I used to be a sprinter, doing `one and two' (100 and 200 metres) and I was asking him if I could do `two and four' now,'' the teenager said.

"The shorter distance wouldn't put that much pressure on my back.'' The other alternative is to seek further treatment, possibly overseas, having already seen a couple of specialists here. "My family has been talking about that,'' she said. Like so many other local athletes before her, Swan was hoping to obtain a track scholarship overseas. The injury has disrupted those plans.

"Before my back was bothering me I thought I had a good chance but now it is making it hard,'' she admitted.

The thought of not being able to run again has the youngster concerned. "If I can't run again I would be real upset,'' she said.

The problem with her lower back first came to the fore in 1997 at the East Coast Invitational Track Meet when she was doing long jump. It caused her some problems in cross country races back in Bermuda and was bad enough to keep her out of the Bank of Butterfield Mile last year as well as the East Coast Invitational.

"This is the last year for the East Coast, period, and I would really like to go, but if I can't go I will be upset,'' said Swan who has also represented the Island in Carifta.

Swan also won the Denton Hurdle Memorial award for outstanding student-athlete while still in primary school, but in the last year her running has been affected by the injury.

Simons admits the injury is very worrying, even more so because Swan has a lot to offer the sport.

"It's unfortunate. She's been to one or two doctors to check it out and they found she has curvage in her spine,'' explained Simons.

"I spoke to Glenn Robinson and a few other physiotherapist-type-specialists.

Hopefully we will be able to get her to another specialist to take a look or possibly talk with her parents and even get her out of the Island.

"It is definitely interfering with her ability to run. She's one of those athletes who trains hard, runs hard and her dedication to the sport is definitely there.

"She is one who really wants to do well and I know this kind of injury is really frustrating for her. I hope we can continue to encourage her to hang in there.'' Simons says Swan has made tremendous improvement since first joining the Pacers about five years ago.

"This year she is in her last year at Berkeley and really wants to do well,'' he said.

"She is scholarship material, in school she is very sound and has good work habits. It would be a shame to lose her.''