Barrhead News | Opinion | The Cauldron that is the Bird's nest

Saturday, 22nd November, 2008

Published: Sunday, 14th September, 2008 08:00

The Cauldron that is the Bird's nest

By Olympic Blogger

This week has been a revelation, and a confirmation of some of my deeply felt convictions born from years as a Ped in the Borders

I think of the way that serious New Year contenders are prepared for the New Year Sprint, the two years or more of graft, sacrifice and absolute determination of coaches and athletes to bring their ward to peak performance. In the good old days people were taken away from their home environment , "hidden" from view, running in balaclavas and wrapped in cotton wool before being brought out at New year after a 12 week Prep to challenge for the famous Powderhall Sprint.

Here in the Paralympic Village I can't help think that the standards, training and experience instilled by "pro" coaches, like the sadly deceased Davie Gibson, or Wilson Young, Charlie Affleck, my own coach Charlie Russell, would still stand here! Stewart Hogg is one of the Old Ped runners and coach of some of Scotland's and Ireland's best and was in Beijing for the Olympics and I count myself very fortunate indeed that I have the privilege to be here for the Paralympics.

One is acutely aware that standards are rising all the time and performances here have been variable. Some have gone on to make Pb's or in some cases with World records tumbling. Of course the classification process is not without it's problems and controversy and recent events have not done much to enhance that.

Yesterday, Neil ran his first race. He ran much as he has all season, with a good 60m, but over striding over the last 40. Overstriding is death for a sprinter as it effectively acts like a break rather than transferring the power to track, and is a common problem. We always knew that technically there was still work to be done and Beijing too early for this to be done. Back in 2006, we agreed that it would take a minimum of two years for any improvements to be seen, and that is still our view.

In the event, Neil was disappointed not to run a PB, and to be fair he should be!

The 200 is a better option for Neil to reach the final and that has been the plan this year, so tomorrow will tell!

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