I’M THE ULTIMATE CHARITY RUNNER

Dasaolu’s Olympic dream saved after donations paid for career-saving op

THERE was no warning whatsoever ahead of the shiverinducing sound that James Dasaolu can best describe as ‘a tree branch snapping in two’.

No tightness or tenderness in the area, nothing. Just another smooth stride on another 120-metre rep on another winter session at Loughborough last November.

And then it all went so horribly wrong for the second-fastest man in British sprinting history.

‘I was on the outdoor track and doing one of my favourite sessions,’ he says. ‘It was all fine, I was feeling good. Then I got to around 60m or 70m and, just, like, bang.

‘The sound, I’m not really sure how to put it. I thought it was my spikes cracking in half. They are quite a solid plastic and in my head it was like they’d cracked. It was an unusual noise — like a tree branch snapping in two.

‘I hit the ground like a ton of bricks and I’m rolling around, thinking, damn, what the hell was that? Don’t let it be my…’

It is generally said that the only sporting injury worse than a torn achilles tendon is a fully ruptured one.

Dasaolu, the 2014 European 100m champion, would rather not be in a position to testify on that, but is succinct in summing it up as ‘rubbish’.

And yet in the bleakness of the circumstances, there is hope. A slim hope it may be, not least because Britain has never had a deeper pool of rival sprinters and there are no guarantees on a full recovery, but the 31-year-old still believes he can return for next year’s Tokyo Olympics.

That he can keep any faith at all is down to the wonders of crowdfunding and the generosity of strangers.

Without the GoFundMe page created by his father in the hours after Dasaolu’s breakdown, there was no prospect of his career continuing, with his British Athletics funding ending in 2016.

He needed £ 9,000 for the urgent and sport- specific surgery and a further £16,000 to pay for his rehabilitation. The £9,000 was raised in days — significant donations came in from teammates such as Dina Asher-Smith and Adam Gemili — and he had his operation within a fortnight of hitting the deck. A further £6,400 has come in, taking the total to £15,400.

‘I never could have done it without people’s help,’ he says. ‘Honestly it has really showed me how kind people can be. I’m not just saying this but it makes me want to get to Tokyo for them as much as for myself. You want to repay people — without them I’m done. ‘I wouldn’t have been able to pay for the surgery and I would’ve had to stop, but they have given me this. ‘It was my dad who came up with it. I had done the injury, had the scan and when I got home, he was like, “What are we going to do?” ‘We needed to do something fast because the doctor said to have any chance of top-level sport again, it was urgent. I’m so grateful I’ve been given this chance.’

The surgery, which saw bone marrow from his hip implanted into his left heel and a graft partially formed from his plantaris muscle, was completed in December.

Dasaolu’s hope is to be jogging in the coming weeks after quick progress so far, and he intends to be sprinting before the year is out. All being well, he’ll be competing on the indoor circuit next season in a desperately late bid to qualify for Tokyo.

Former world silver medallist Tony Jarrett has not been alone in wondering why the 2016 British champion — a 9.91sec runner at his best in 2013 — has not been helped more by British Athletics.

Or as Jarrett put it on Twitter, ‘British Athletics kicked him in the…’ followed by a nuts emoji.

It is straightforward enough to understand the original funding decision after Dasaolu failed to reach the Rio Olympic final.

With new talent led by Reece Prescod and European champion Zharnel Hughes, it must also be noted that Dasaolu has only once gone under 10.10sec in the past two seasons.

But it is also possible to wonder if more could be done for longstanding members of the British team once they have been cut from funding.

That sense is only exacerbated by knowing Dasaolu trains at Loughborough, where the British Athletics high performance centre and numerous physios are based. He is reluctant to criticise the organisation, though when pushed he says he has received no assistance or medical support.

Asked if there should be a framework in place to contribute in instances such as his, he says: ‘ In terms of that, it is quite disappointing.’

It remains to be seen if there is a happy ending in Tokyo for the Londoner. His routine and finances permit two physio sessions a week and the progress has been heartening. He says each week he can do something he couldn’t do the previous and his key is to ‘only think positive, nothing negative’.

Yet it is a struggle. The father of three took a job as a personal trainer six weeks ago to help make ends meet and it would be hard even in an ideal world to overtake the current crop of British sprinters.

Dasaolu is an optimist, though. ‘I’ve always come back stronger from injuries,’ he says. ‘In 2014 I had a severe tear to my hamstring and was completely written off. That year, I won European gold.’

Reaching Tokyo would be a far, far greater comeback.