Miracle man Ellington sets Tokyo target
Sprinter to race for first time after horror crash ‘This is easy after what I have come back from’
British sprinter James Ellington is adamant he can continue to prove the experts wrong and make a third Olympic team next year as he prepares for an astonishing competitive return this weekend, racing for the first time since almost losing his life in a motorbike accident.
Ellington has not raced on the track since August 2016, after suffering horrific injuries when an oncoming car hit the motorcycle he was riding while at a warm-weather training camp in Tenerife five months later.
Despite experts doubting his ability ever to walk again, Ellington, 33, will complete an incredible comeback over 100 metres at the London Anniversary Games on Saturday – and he insists this is just the start.
“I 100 per cent think I can make it to Tokyo [2020 Olympics],” Ellington told Telegraph Sport. “It might sound crazy, but in my head that’s a walk in the park compared to what I’ve had to come back from.
“I’ll come out next year and I’ll be an animal, that’s what I believe.”
Ellington was in the form of his life before his accident, running personal best times of 10.04 seconds for 100m and 20.31sec for 200m in his last track season.
However, his career looked to be over when the motorcycle he was riding with former British teammate Nigel Levine crashed, causing numerous injuries, including a compound fracture of the right leg, a fractured left ankle, a fractured eye socket, a fractured pelvis and the loss of six pints of blood.
After multiple operations and years of slowly increasing his training load, he now feels ready to test himself in a race again, although he admits he has no idea how he will fare in London this weekend against a daunting 100m field containing Olympic and world medallists.
“It’s the first time ever in my life where I don’t know what sort of shape I’m in,” he said. “I’m in the gym fully and stronger than I was before the accident but, in terms of the track stuff, it’s been about playing it by ear when my body allows me.
“As it stands now, I can do a fast session and then I’m banged up for the next five or six days and can barely move. So I’ve had to time it right coming into this race.
“The main thing is this is a massive milestone in my return to the track. Afterwards, it all depends on how the race goes and how my body feels.
“Either I don’t feel great, I’m in a lot of pain and don’t run as fast as I’d like, so will sack the season off and get back to training for next session. Or if I do surprise myself and feel OK I might carry on competing.”
Few people thought he would ever be physically capable of running again, let alone competing, but he says he thrived – and continues to thrive – on those who doubt him.
“Other people’s doubt is a big motivation,” he said. “That’s definitely something that turns me on when it comes to achieving stuff.
“A lot of my great achievements have been in the face of adversity. If you look at 2012, that was the year I put myself on ebay [seeking a sponsor] because I was working and couldn’t train full-time. I said if I got a sponsor I would go to the Olympics and I made that happen.
“In 2015 I didn’t have a great season and they tried to cut my funding, so I was angry to prove a point and I made the Olympic team. There’s a correlation there.
“I always said from day one, ‘As long as I’ve got my legs I’ll be able to run’. I can’t really explain how or why I knew, but inside me I always believed it. It’s not deluded X Factor belief, where you can’t sing, but you think you can. If I was done I would have known. But I knew I wasn’t.”
Come 2.35pm on Saturday, the ice man of British sprinting admits there may even be a tear or two.
“Everyone always says I’m like a rock, but I do have emotions that I don’t show,” he said. “It’s definitely going to be emotional being on the start line again. You never know, I might be overwhelmed and start crying or something.”