AN OF A FIGHTBACK
James picks up the pieces
WHEN his body was in pieces and all hope seemed lost, James Ellington set his sights on the Tokyo Olympics.
A head-on crash with a car in 2017 had left his legs broken, his pelvis fractured and displaced, his adductors torn off the bone.
The injuries, and there were a good few more besides, were labelled ‘career threatening.’ Most thought that was being kind.
It was not just the motorbike, on which he was riding pillion that fateful day in Tenerife, that was written off.
Incredibly, two years later Ellington was back on the start line to race the 100m at the London Anniversary Games.
He was still way off and every step he took, he said, felt like “I was being stabbed”. For two and a half weeks after he was unable to walk.
Yet today, 100 days until the Olympic flame is lit, he is ramping things up in the belief he can be there in Japan to see it.
Next week Ellington, 35, a double European relay gold medallist, races for the first time since the pandemic effectively shut athletics more than a year ago.
He has spent the past 12 months living and training, often alone, in Dubai, driven on by the pledge he made at his lowest point.
“People will doubt me,” he said. “But this has been a four-and-a-half-year journey already.
“There’s no way I’d have put this much time and effort into something if it was just to get back to being in some sort of shape. I did that two years ago.
“It’s about actually competing at an elite level again, picking up from where I left off in 2016 when I ran five personal bests and had the year of my athletics life.
“There’s no way I could leave it at that. I’d have gone the rest of my life regretting it if I didn’t at least try.”
Such is the uncertainty caused by coronavirus that even this close nobody truly knows what the Olympics are going to look like.
Many, outside of the elite, have been unable to access facilities and track time until recently.
Organised competitions have been thin on the ground.
There are no shortage of legitimate excuses if you are looking for them. Only Ellington is not.
“I’ve put this pressure on myself for a purpose,” said the Londoner, who is supported by Lifeplus. “Once everyone has heard me say something, it’s like I have to do it.
“I could easily have baled, said I’m moving round okay now so that’s the story completed. But that’s not enough.” down