LYNSEY’S DAD A SHARP CRITIC
LYNSEY SHARP plans to go glory hunting when the world championships kick off on Friday – and then pray it’s enough to get pass marks from her dad.
In his days as a sprinter, Cameron wasn’t known for holding back. Head down. Full steam ahead.
When his daughter’s career went into reverse, he refused to pull any punches. It was brutal, harsh and totally honest.
Lynsey, 28, said: “That was harder than ever last year to listen to. Because he would just ask questions about my speed and what I was doing. That was hard.”
Following a horrific car accident that left him with injuries, Cameron is now forced to follow Lynsey’s career on TV at his home in Edinburgh.
He rarely misses one of her 800 metres races but afterwards comes the no-holds barred verdict.
Lynsey said: “He mostly communicates with me by email. So he would say something to me like, ‘where has the speed gone?’ Then my mum has to phone him and say ‘you can’t say it as blunt as that’. But most of the time he is right in what he says!”
The reviews have been better this summer, with Sharp back to her best after rebooting everything in the spring. Based at that point in California she was desperate to appear at the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow. Instead she was left off the British team.
Those were dark days, she reveals, and there came a night when she felt like calling it quits. It needed a radical u-turn to bring her career back to life.
Lynsey said: “I made a huge call. I literally packed a bag for an indoor season when I left San Diego and never went back.
“For three months I had a bag which I had for indoors, I just made the decision to stay in the UK, stay in Loughborough and get a new set-up.”
Now she’s running happy again with mum Carol and boyfriend Andy Butchart in support, along with new coach David Harmer – and she has her sights set on a medal in the 800m.