I’m ready to pull off a big shock, vows Turner
ATHLETICS CYCLING
ANDY TURNER is convinced he can spring an upset in tonight’s 110m hurdles final.
The GB runner booked his place in today’s semi-finals by winning his first round race yesterday.
He will be joined in the semis by fellow Brit Lawrence Clarke – and the 31-year-old is ready to bounce back after a troubled season.
Turner admitted: “I was petrified. I haven’t had the best year, I’ve been struggling for form, but training has gone well for two weeks.
“Now I’ve got that out of the way I feel I can get my legs turning over and there’s more to come.
“I will have to run faster to get through the semi-finals.
“But whenever I’ve been in a major final, I’ve always managed to get a medal.
Misery
“And there’s no reason why I shouldn’t do it again.”
Clarke, 22, admits he was absolutely cacking himself in the Olympic Stadium.
He said: “I wasn’t nervous on the morning of the race, but when I looked out of the call room I didn’t know how to control myself.
“I sat in the blocks and tried to keep it a clean race.
“I wasn’t thinking about anyone around me, I was focused and I’m just so glad to be through.”
But there was misery for GB’s Andrew Pozzi, who pulled up with a hamstring injury immediately after leaving the blocks in his qualifying heat.
The 20-year-old revealed: “The last month has been a nightmare.
“I tore my hamstring at Crystal Palace and haven’t been able to get it sorted. It’s just not gone.
“It’s all I’ve been waiting and training so hard for, the aim and what makes the hard work worth it, and to leave like that is heartbreaking.” SIR CHRIS HOY savoured the joy of six to become Great Britain’s most successful ever Olympian.
The Scot collected his SIXTH gold medal – and his second of the London Games – with victory in the Keirin.
And Laura Trott added more gloss to another night of glory for GB’s cyclists with gold in the women’s omnium to go with the one she won in the team pursuit.
But Victoria Pendleton was controversially denied the chance to sign off her career on a high.
Hoy blasted his way to victory from three laps out after being forced into an early break.
And he held on for gold under intense pressure from German Max Levy.
Hoy said: “I’m in shock. You try to compose yourself but this is just surreal.
“I saw all the rest of the team stepping up to the plate and I wanted to do my bit.
“I look back four Games ago to Sydney and my silver medal and if I had stopped then I would be a happy boy.
Dream
“I’m 99.99 per cent sure I won’t be at Rio. I couldn’t top this. This is a dream ending and I can’t look too far ahead.
“To succeed is one of the greatest feelings I’ve ever had.”
Queen Vic was desperate to head off into retirement with victory in the women’s sprint over arch-rival Anna Meares.
Pendleton thought she won the opening sprint in the three-leg final – but then discovered she had been relegated to second place in the race.
The judges initially declared her the winner by a margin of one-thousandth of a second.
But they later ruled Pendleton had moved out of the sprinter’s lane and handed the race to her Aussie rival.
Meares won the second race and Pendleton’s dream was left in tatters.
Pendleton – who was also disqualified in the team sprint – said: “I would have loved to have gone out with a win but I am just glad that is the last time I will race.
“I was really annoyed with the decision in the first race because I thought she was leaning into me and I had to move out.
“I can’t
believe
it’s