Sharp calls on Aussies to bring the noise

LYNSEY Sharp has asked the home town crowd at the Carrara Stadium in the Gold Coast to bring the noise next week – because she usually reserves her best performances for the biggest atmospheres.

Sharp famously brought home a silver medal for Scotland in Glasgow 2014, after a build-up that saw her confined to a wheelchair with a leg infection and succumb to an illness on the eve of the competition.

Nothing may ever live up to that, but after a fourth-place finish in a low key Queensland Track Classic event warm-up event in Brisbane that even she described as “garbage”, battling a raucous Australian crowd in a Commonwealth final might be the best thing for her.

“I raced a week ago which was garbage but that was usual me,” said Sharp. “I got excited with 300 to go and that was a long way out to kick for home. Then I hit the wind on the home straight. But I’d rather have done it there than in the heats.

“In athletics over the last few years we’ve had London 2012, Glasgow 2014, then the world champs in London last year,” added the 27-yearold. “It’s almost like that became normal. It’s awful to say it but the atmosphere in Rio was dead – I remember walking out to the Olympics final chatting to Melissa [Bishop, of Canada] and it felt like it wasn’t the Olympic final. I very much prefer big events and find it hard to get up for low key races.

“I think another medal would be as satisfying as Glasgow because it’s been really hard over the last couple of years to get any sort of silverware. There’s been a domination in the women’s 800. I’ve missed getting medals.”