athletics 1983-1993
I was always quick, in fact sprinting was the best thing I did. Recognised in junior school, I was recommended to join a club. I soon found myself in all the school sport teams, even if I wasn't any good at them. But it was athletics I excelled at, and at a Borough Sports meeting I met Ken Seddington, who became my coach for the next 4 years.
I entered the Senior Indoor Championships in 1994 and beat Mel Lattany, a famous American sprinter and the great Linford Christie. All the talk was of going to that years Olympics in Los Angeles. I was just 17 years old! |
I qualified for the Olympics at the trials, beating Buster Watson in a close finish. My Olympic dream was always just to get to the 200 metre final, which I did, coming 8th in the race won by the great Carl Lewis. The following year at the European Junior Championships, I won the 200m and was a member of the English team that won the 4 x 400m. These Championships featured future greats such as Colin Jackson, Roger Black and John Regis.
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In 1991, I was being coached by Ron Roddan, Linford Christies coach. I went to the Commonwealth Games representing England in the 200m with Marcus Adam and John Regis, finishing a close third to Marcus and John, running a personal best of 20.23sec.
In the World Championships in Tokyo in 1992 I ran in the heats for the Gold medal winning 4 x 400 team, consisting of Kriss Akabusi, John Regis, Roger Black, Derek Redmond and Mark Richardson |
After narrowly missing out on qualification for the Barcelona Olympics, I switched events up to the longer 400m, but despite qualifying for the World Championships in Stuttgart in 1993, I crashed out in the heats. In November I discovered that I had been training and racing all year with a broken bone in my right foot and needed a operation, which led to retirement.
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