Monday 13 August 2012

Triple Olympic champion - no small feat


No athlete has ever won the same track event at three consecutive Olympics. It appears a feat beyond the parameters of human possibility. To be the fastest or to have the best endurance over a specific distance for the best part of a decade is yet to be crystallised in the form of Olympic domination.

Of course, it is much more complicated than that. Merely being the quickest in your discipline is no assurance of victory. Take Mo Farah in the 5,000m for example: this year ten other runners had posted faster times and seven boasted superior personal bests. 


But when it came to it, at the crucial point - in the final of the Olympic Games - Farah vanquished them all


In the run-up to the Games, Farah stressed how he had configured his training so that he peaked at London. Evidently, this worked wonders - while others were busy setting world-leading times, Farah was quietly timing his preparations to perfection. 


Hitting one's peak at the critical moment is a quality synonymous with
 the last of the 'Flying Finns' Lasse Viren. Viren is the only competitor to win both the 5,000m and 10,000m in consecutive Olympics, and he did so by drifting away from the athletics scene - when he worked as a policeman in his home country - and returning when it mattered most.

The sole athlete who had the chance to earn Olympic track immortality at this Games - in Farah's first conquest, the 10,000m - was Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia. This is a runner who has been so successful in his career that on the sparse occasion when he's taken anything but a gold medal, the immediate question to be asked is what went wrong for Bekele - not what went right for the winner.



Kenenisa Bekele leading the pack; by David Leah from Comisión Nacional de Cultura Física y Deporte


However, even for someone considered to be one of the all-time greats in long-distance running, a third Olympic title proved elusive. There were no excuses from Bekele as he finished in fourth place and out of the medals, and one must assume merely that the years had caught up with him. He has since declared that he will hang up his track boots in order to tackle the marathon, a progression many greats have made before him.

In the sprints, Carl Lewis was 100m champion in 1984 and 1988. Come Barcelona 1992, however, his dominance had waned and Lewis focused on the long jump. To further highlight the difficulties of staying at the top, on only one occasion has the 400m been won by the same man at consecutive Olympics – by ‘Superman’ Michael Johnson in 1996 and 2000.



Is there something about track running that makes the treble so hard to achieve? Rigorous training demands are one small matter as the athlete has a number of factors to contend with cometh the moment. In sprinting, one false start now equates to immediate disqualification and in the longer distances, tactics play a huge part as runners influence the way the race plays out by sticking with their fellow nationals and training partners.

Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the recently crowned double Olympic champions in men's and women's 100m, will each have a chance at Rio 2016 to do what no one has done before and become an Olympic triple track champion. Quite a mouthful, and quite a feat. In fact, as the double winner in the 200m, Bolt will have two opportunities. 


They will both be 29 when the opportunity arises, and age is unlikely to be their stumbling block. For 5"0' Fraser-Pryce, competing in one of the most loaded events, has twice denied the USA and has awakened their wrath. Then, Bolt: who knows where he will be in four years' time? In the world of cricket, motoring on to Wayne Rooney throughballs or tackling the longer sprint, the 400m?


Or maybe, just maybe, he will have stuck around long enough to achieve something that really will make Bolt a legend of athletics.



Usain Bolt after retaining his Olympic 100m crown at London 2012; by Mike Hilton

Friday 10 August 2012

Keri-Anne Payne unable to follow in fellow GB stars' golden footsteps

London Olympics 2012, Women's Open Water Race, 10k/ 6 laps of Hyde Park's Serpentine

The Serpentine: a dauntingly named lake that conjures images of mythical snake beasts. Indeed, its name is derived from its snaking, curving shape. Yet as open water courses go, such thoughts are misleading. The flat tide made for a very fast race in the women’s swimming marathon.

Great Britain’s Keri-Anne Payne was a strong favourite but could only manage fourth place. Perhaps that the winner, Eva Risztov of Hungary, has a rich background in middle-distance pool races suggests the conditions were unfavourable to Payne.

Open water racing is as it sounds: an individualised discipline where swimmers have great freedom to decide how they compete. They can lurk in a chasing pack or lead, drift sideways and take fuel breaks as and when pleased.

Payne appeared to have missed her final drop from her feeding station, which could account for her being off the leaders’ pace. It may be more appropriate, however, to make the point that the waters were too tame to draw the best out of her.

For a swimmer who has encountered jellyfish the size of dinner plates, swam in a river where dead dogs and horses had been dumped and in ice-cold waters without shark nets, the recreational lake would have been like a stroll in the surrounding Hyde Park – a comfort to some but which played competitively to Payne’s disadvantage.

Characteristically Payne, who likes to lead from start to finish, took immediately to the front, only to be hauled back by Hayley Anderson of USA and Risztok, who stretched the field at a ferocious pace.

With one lap of six remaining, the race was already elitist as a ten metre gap separated the first five swimmers. Mercifully, Risztok cranked the intensity to make the gap 20 then 30 metres, putting a clear separation between the rest of the field.

The early race leader, Anderson, was left adrift battling with Payne to catch Germany’s Angela Moura, Italy’s Martina Grimaldi and Risztok who occupied the medal positions.

What happened next was extraordinary, however, as she summoned staggering reserve to surge up to second place, and came close to snatching victory. Payne, too, was swept forward as the end approached, and finished just 0.4 seconds off a podium finish.