Gemili looking to get his Olympic year off to a flyer
ADAM GEMILI spent a portion of last week trying to outrun a red arrow. Now the sprinter, who ran side-by-side with an aircraft from the RAF aerobatic team for a TV show, is determined to prove that getting a flying start needn’t be rocket science. The 22-year-old Londoner will get a rare outing over 60m in a high-class field in the Glasgow Indoor Grand Prix at the Emirates Arena today and knows that honing his ability to get a quick start could pay dividends when he tries to outrun a lightning bolt in Rio this August.
“I’m not a 60m guy,” admitted Gemili, who has a personal best over 100m of 9.97secs. “I’m just using it to improve. The start of my race is what I need to work on. And what better field to do it in than Glasgow – the best indoor competition there is. The first time I raced at this distance in Cardiff I remember speaking to James Dasaolu, my training partner, after the race because when I stood up – and that’s the bit when I like to get going – it was finished.”
Gemili – who will compete in the 60m against world and European indoor champion Richard Kilty and Trayvon Brommell, the 100m bronze medalist at last year’s World Championship – might permit himself a sneaky wee glance at Celtic Park on the way through Dalmarnock. As a young football player coming through the ranks at Chelsea, he used to dream of representing the London club on Champions League nights or playing international football for England.
And he still can’t walk past a five-aside pitch without secretly hankering to dig out his boots for a kickabout.
But those aspirations have quietly been transferred for other ones, though. Ones that he fervently hopes come to fruition at the ancestral home of football, Brazil, this summer, even if the athletics competition will be at the Estadio Olimpico Joao Havelange and not the Maracana.
“I always had a dream of playing in the Champions League and playing for England,” said Gemili, whose career progressed at Reading, then Dagenham and Redbridge, via a loan spell at Thurrock. “Being at Chelsea we used to be the ball boys and we used to stand on the pitch waving that big flag in the centre circle and we used to hear that music and think ‘that is amazing’. The dream has now changed and it has to be an Olympic gold.
“Sneaking into 5-a-sides?” he added. “I did that once when I moved to my new coach and I was really stupid enough to put it on Twitter and I got a call 10 minutes later from my coach saying ‘Adam, make better choices’. So I don’t play football any more, on the record, but I do miss it.”
While he seems unlikely to specialise in the 60m any time soon, Gemili could double up in both the 100m and 200m in Rio. He has been working with sports psychology specialist Dr Steve Peters and feels mentally strong after the injuries which have dogged him.
“Potentially both but we’ll see what sort of shape I’m in,” added Gemili, whose path frequently crosses with Lynsey Sharp at Loughborough. “Similar to last year I was starting with the 100m, trying to improve my flat speed and then putting in some more speed endurance for the 200m. The 100m is stacked at the moment but there’s a definite push for that bronze medal. The same for the 200m really. There’s medals there to be won, it’s just who wants to win it the most.”
The entire GB sprint team were out in Tenerife recently, with no sign of any of the arguments which have occasionally flared on relay duty. At the world championships in Beijing, a four-man team of Kilty, Daniel Talbot, James Ellington and Chijindu Ujah turned on each other after failing to finish at a fourth consecutive global competition. “Sprinters are probably the most ego-driven athletes out there,” he said. “You have to be. So there are always going to be some clashes. I’m really glad we all went out there, every single sprinter, male and female. It was a really good bonding week and we all came together and realised we have a common goal, we want to go out and win gold. We are all old enough to know where we stand and we can’t get away with things like that. It is a fresh breed of sprinters coming through and we are going to do it the right way.”
I always had a dream of playing in the Champions League and playing for England. Being at Chelseawe used to be the ball boys and think ‘that is amazing’