The phrase "strived to secure" is correct and usable in written English
You can use it when you want to describe someone who worked hard to obtain something or achieve a goal. For example: "The student strived to secure top grades in her classes so that she could get accepted into the college of her choice."
As commerce expanded, the Portuguese strove to secure control of trade with the Moluccas the Spice Islands.
"As we strive to secure a decisive victory for our organisation in the upcoming elections we must remember our primary task," Mandela said.
"Everywhere in the world except in Cuba, North Korea and China, presidential candidates strive to secure as much support as they can," Mr. Djindjic said this week.
Groups like Scenic Hudson and Riverkeeper strive to secure public access as an organization like the Historic Hudson Valley focuses on the county's treasure trove from the past.
Virtually un-recognisable from their underachieving recent selves, they reduced Bilic to a study in quiet technical area fury as they strove to secure a first Premier League win of the season.
"Yes of course we care and we worry about the top four," said Wenger, who has come under sustained criticism from disaffected Arsenal fans in recent weeks as he strives to secure Champions League qualification for a 20th successive year.
In making this choice, the electors strove to secure their own privileges, but the German public tended to see in the new monarch a fulfillment of national aspirations mistakenly, as it turned out, but giving rise, at the time, to patriotic expressions of hopes for a brighter future.
But Rotter's perceptive and humorous story goes beyond the obvious sendup to explore the private and at times desperate ways his characters strive to secure their own homeland, from the borders of their bedrooms to the cargo of their dreams, showing how the logic of personal rhetoric is never far removed from the political.
Committed to the idea that jazz was every bit as serious an art form as classical music, he determined that the members of the M.J.Q. would wear tuxedos in performance, and he strove to secure as many bookings as possible in concert halls rather than nightclubs.
