The Olympic Roads

Taking on the World

Thetraining for the relay teams was running like clockwork. They weredeveloping a strong working relationship with each other and eventook it upon themselves to train independently with Boeing, Comet andJames watching from the sidelines. Wearing their national colourswith pride during every training session they had, they were alwaysperforming to the best of their ability, doing their coaches proud inthe process.

Itwas the beginning of August and the teams were taking a break for arefreshing lunch. Homemade soup followed by a mouth-watering chickensalad and finishing off with a very juicy fruit salad when James cameover with something important to say. He was in his national coloursof Britain and was trying to keep a straight face, which he wascapable of doing during his career.

Soniccould see that James was trying to stay cool as a cucumber whiledelivering what he gathered was exciting news.

"Guys,I just received a phone call from the presidents of both UK athleticsand IAAF. You guys have been offered places at this year's WorldAthletics Championships in Daegu."

Theathletes started celebrating like lunatics but James didn't seem tomind because he knew this would spur them on in training. And itpaid off in the long run as they were more than ready for the worldchampionships and word got out that they could possibly challenge forthe gold and maybe, just maybe, dethrone Usain Bolt in the process.

Theteams were then doing interviews in the run up to the WorldChampionships for BBC, ITV and other sports broadcasters. Thequestions were more or less the same in each interview but wereworded differently.

Sonichad a press conference for Sky Sports the week before he went toDaegu with the team.

"HelloSonic, David Bobin for Sky Sports News here. How are you feelingahead of your first major competition for Team GB?"

Sonictook his seat at the table set up with several microphones frommultiple sports broadcasters, including Sky Sports for his pressconference. "It's an honour to be here today, David, to talkabout my prospects for the World Championships. This, however isn'tmy first major competition for Team GB."

Thismade the press very interested in what Sonic would say next.

"Whatdo you mean by that?" David responded with interest.

"Well,last year I had my first ever competition in a British vest when Icompeted in the World Junior Championships."

"Andwhere was this competition held?"

"Thechampionships were held in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada."

"Tellus a bit more about the competition."

Thiswas when Sonic really started to make the conference his own. "Well,over the course of the week that the competition was held, nearly1500 athletes from 170 countries including myself took part in 44events, obviously not all of them otherwise you'd feel like a deadweight at the end of the first two days, never mind the whole week,"Everyone had a laugh at the last comment Sonic made, to which heresponded, "I mean, could you imagine trying to complete 44 eventsin just a week, you'd have to be either Hercules, Sonic theHedgehog or both to be able to succeed in doing so," The medialaughed even harder at that comment. "In all seriousness, though,the atmosphere was incredible. The Moncton Stadium was only openedon the opening day of the competition. A standard capacity of 10000which was expandable to just over 20000. The organisers decided togo for the latter option since it was the first competition to beheld at the stadium. The crowd didn't disappoint as the energy ofthat crowd is something I like feed off. The energy from the crowdkeeps me going right through to the finish line."

"Goingback to the events of the competition, what did you do there?"

"Icompeted in the 100 and 200 metres. I did well in the 100 metres, Igot passed the 1stround with a personal best or PB as we sometimes call it, of 10.49seconds. I just missed out on a place in the final with 10.73seconds. It was a great experience though for my first competition. The 200 metres went well also, as I got through to the semi-finalswith a PB of 21.37 seconds. I then improved in the semis with 21.16,another PB but didn't make it to the final. 3 PBs in the space of2 days which my dad was really happy about."