Big test as Sharp seeks to live up to her name
Scot says there is no point to low-key races as she steps up Rio preparations with race against Semenya
YNSEY SHARP said farewell to her dogs yesterday, before heading for Rabat on a journey which she hopes will lead to the Olympic 800 metres final in Rio de Janeiro this summer.
She plunges in at the deep end tomorrow, against a Diamond League 800 metres field which may prove little softer than the Olympic final itself. The Edinburgh woman who won European gold and silver, plus Commonwealth silver in Glasgow, faces her first two-lap race of the year. Twelve line up for a race of blistering intensity, with nine inside two minutes and the slowest on 2:00.21 – a potential traffic jam of highspeed racers.
“There’s not much point doing low-key races,” says Sharp, “because these are the girls I’m going to be racing week in, week out. I feel in really good shape, and racing at that level is what I need to be doing.”
Sharp must master such rivals to have any chance of an Olympic medal. They have crossed swords often. Niyansaba won their World Indoor heat in Portland and Sharp’s second was not good enough for the final which the Burundi woman won.
Arzamasova won European gold in 2014 with Sharp runner-up, and the Scot was also second to her in their World heat in Bejing last year as the Belarus woman improved beyond all measure to take gold.
After Glasgow 2014 gold, Sum was all but unbeatable – Diamond League winner, though Sharp beat the Kenyan in Brussels.
Then there’s the controversial Semenya, already world’s fastest this year (1:58.26). Sharp first met her in 2008 when the South African took Commonwealth Youth Games gold, with Sharp third. Officials were alerted to potential gender issues but did nothing, and it all blew up in 2009 when Semenya won world gold in Berlin. The global governing body launched an investigation which lasted almost a year during which she could not compete internationally. It was appallingly handled, and Semenya was subjected to prurient and intrusive public scrutiny.
Modest times on her return led to speculation that medication to combat hyper-androgenism had been administered. However, last summer a landmark Court of Arbitration for Sport decision on Indian sprinter Dutee Chand forced the IAAF to suspend their rules on eligibility of such females. Treatment and medication were shelved, and it will be a year before the subject can be reopened.
When this was announced last July, Semenya had failed to break 2:04 and she was slowest of the 24 Beijing semifinalists with 2:03.18 a month later. Four Scots ran faster last summer.
Coincidence or otherwise, Semenya again seems unbeatable. Last month, at the South African championships she completed an unprecedented title treble: 400m in 50.74 (improving her lifetime best by almost two seconds this year), and just 45 minutes later won the 800m in 1:58.45 – both then world leading times. Within three hours she won the 1500m in 4.10.91 – a time beaten only twice in the history of the Scottish Championships (Lynne MacDougall, 1986 and ‘89).
Semenya and hyper-androgenism threatens to dominate headlines again, but Sharp is loath to discuss the subject.
“We go back to when she won the 2008 Youth Games. So I’ve known her quite a long time. We chat: how she is, what she has been doing. Obviously she’s had a bit of a tough time for a few years, but there has been no real comment at all on what she has been through.
“I think it is really unfair on her, and it’s not her fault, but I think the whole controversy will be reignited, like 2009 – the talking point of the summer. It’s not really fair on the other athletes – I don’t want to sound bitter, because she is a lovely person. I get on really well with her, but you have to ask how fair it is on everyone else who is competing against people like this.”
The athletics community suspects Semenya and Chand are not the only women with high testosterone – an issue discretely raised by athlete representatives at world level.
Discussion of this, and on doping “is draining,” says Sharp. “I know what I am capable of, and I’m really enjoying the process of training and preparing for the Olympics. There is nothing I can do other than concentrate on what I am doing. It has no positive effect for me to sit thinking about it, or stressing about it. That only has a negative effect, and that’s not going to help me get to Rio. It’s pointless.”
With 12 valid Olympic qualifying times (better than 2:01.50) since last year, she is arguably Britain’s most qualified Rio candidate in any event, but she declines to consider that. “It’s obviously going to go down to the trials [where the first two, provided they have two qualifying times, are guaranteed selection] which will be really competitive, with a lot of good youngsters coming through [six inside the standard including fellow-Scot Laura Muir]. Shelayna broke through last year and ran really well in Beijing, and Jenny Meadows opened up last weekend [2:01.29] and says she is going to retire after this year. So she will put everything into making that team.
“So 2:1.50 is nothing. If I’m only running that, there’s no point in me even going to Rio. I hope to open up even faster than that in Rabat.”
Sharp says it’s her most important season to date. With contracts due for renegotiation after the games, it’s critical for her commercial future.
Despite a 2-1 in law, she jokes about being “another boring athlete – its not exactly the most exciting life... just travel to races, the trials, and hopefully Rio. I don’t have time for anything else. I start books and don’t finish them.
“At times I miss the continuation of learning, like I did at university. Some day I shall probably do a masters. I’ve still learned a lot over the past few years. It’s not as if I haven’t used my brain at all.”
Mum, former 800m internationalist Carol, is a regular dog-sitter for Walter and Mars, a poodle and cockapoo. “Sometimes I Skype the dogs and talk to them,” admits Lynsey.