9:53am Tuesday 27th July 2010
DWAIN CHAMBERS wants to recreate history by winning 100metres gold at Barcelona’s Olympic Stadium 18 years after Linford Christie.
The 32-year-old will begin his bid to land the European title tonight at the arena where Christie won the Olympic crown in 1992.
UK Athletics head coach Charles van Commenee showed a clip of Christie’s winning run to motivate the British team at their Avivafunded pre-event preparation camp in Portugal last week.
Christie himself helped inspire the athletes by reading two poems, one self-penned about his experiences in the race and the other ‘Desiderata’ by Max Ehrmann.
‘‘It was a long time ago, 18 years ago and that raised a few eyebrows, it even raised Linford’s at the time,’’ said Chambers.
‘‘It was inspirational to watch and know we are going back to the stadium where he won gold, especially for the 100m guys. It’s a fantastic opportunity for us to recreate history.
‘‘It was a very motivational speech and it was great to see him being acknowledged for his achievements and he got a standing ovation from us.
It’s great for him to be out there watching us and hopefully we can do him proud.’’ Chambers’ clash with 20- year-old Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre, who earlier this month became the first white man to break the ten-second barrier when he clocked 9.98seconds in Valence, is set to be one of the highlights of the Championships.
And Christie expects the veteran Briton to come out on top.
‘‘I expect Dwain to win,’’ he said.
‘‘Considering Dwain’s at a disadvantage because of all the problems he has with being able to get races (Chambers is not invited to compete in the most lucrative meetings, including the Diamond League, following his previous two-year drugs ban) to go out there and still put in his performance (he ran 9.99secs at the European Team Championships) shows what a good athlete he is.
‘‘And given the same opportunities as everyone else we wouldn’t be talking about how close it would be because Dwain would be streets ahead.’’ As it is Lemaitre leads the European rankings this season but Chambers, although admitting the nerves do not diminish with experience, is remaining calm.
‘‘I’m going to be cool as a cucumber, I’m not going to give him the evil eye,’’ he said.
For Christie, who coaches four members of the British team – Mark Lewis-Francis, Conrad Williams, Laura Turner and Katherine Endacott – his poetry was all about instilling self-belief.
‘‘A lot of people are surprised and shocked at that but I do it quite a lot,’’ he said.
‘‘Now that there is all this interest maybe I will (bring out a collection).
‘‘But it’s just really all about inspiration.
“They’ve all got the ability it’s just the confidence that they need that’s going to make the difference between winning a medal and just making the final.’’
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/trade_directory/