The Lion - April 2012

THE LION

OLYMPIC SPECIAL

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ISSUE

6 | April 2012

Welcome to this year’s second edi-tion of The Lion, your biannual eight page colour pull-out focusing exclu-sively on sport.

Last year we achieved an out-standing second place in the Brit-ish Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) rankings, behind only Loughborough. We’re likely to fall slightly this year; this was always likely as our performances last year were simply exceptional, and some other institutions have dramatically increased funding for sport this year. However, whatever our final result all of our student athletes in every sport can be thoroughly proud for repre-senting their University, and doing

the best they can possibly do.We had our fair share of heart-

break in this year’s BUCS Champi-onships. Both women’s Hockey and women’s Lacrosse lost out by one goal in their respective Champion-ship finals. Our swimming team got more personal bests and an overall better team time than last year, yet fell down the rankings. However, we also secured medals in many sports including Judo and Karate, plus our first ever points in Mountaineering.

Away from the Championships themselves, both Triathlon and Cy-cling have continued to improve year-on-year with their points haul for the University, whilst there is

also continued achievement within our non-BUCS accredited sports; Lifesaving have won their National Championships, American Football reached their fourth consecutive UK Universities Bowl final and Ice Hock-ey have risen from a quiet few years to give a strong showing at their recent Nationals. Not only did our Cheerleading squads win their Fu-ture Cheer national event, but have also represented UoB on Soccer AM and in the opening titles of Britain’s Got Talent.

These are just a few of the fan-tastic achievements made by our clubs this year, and there are so many more. I simply haven’t got space to

mention them all, but we will do our best to celebrate them all fully in the upcoming Sports Ball and Awards evening.

Our University, with help from myself, staff and countless volunteers, continues to give strong support for sport at every level. This is exempli-fied by the work this year increasing participation sport through the ‘Get Involved’ Sports Fair, through the building of a new £55million sports facility which aims to inspire all students to get active regularly, and through the commitment to nurture new sports clubs set up by students through the Guild. We can be excep-tionally proud of this commitment which gives all students opportuni-ties to partake and excel in sport.

This edition also looks forward to the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which obviously need no introduction. It will be an honour to host the Jamaican track and field team for their pre-Games camp in July, and I am very glad that many students have taken up opportuni-ties to get involved in the camp itself. Furthermore, best of luck to all of the University of Birmingham alumni competing in the Games; we wish you every success.

WELCOME TO THE LION

Tim SmithVP Sport

[email protected]

VPS Tim at the Bournbrook rugby pitch Millie Guy

THE LIONEditorial Information

Executive EditorGlen Moutrie

Editors in ChiefSam PriceRaphael Sheridan

Deputy EditorsOwen EarwickerJames Dolton

Online EditorChris Hutchinson

Art Director and Front CoverAlexander Blanchard

Editorial AssistantsVictoria BullJames Phillips

PhotographersGeorge KillickMeurig GallagherCharlotte WilsonMillie Guy

IllustrationsElin Stone

Copy EditorLexie Wilson

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2 April 2012redbrickpaper.co.uk THE LION

Redbrick's Olympic Microsite

LETTER FROM THE EDITORS

Hello everybody,Welcome to the sixth edition of The Lion, Redbrick Sport's biannual pullout. On the cusp of London 2012, we have provided an Olympic special. The Univer-sity of Birmingham is of pivotal importance to the 2012 Games, as it plays hosts to the prodigious Jamaican athletics team for their pre-Games training camp, which we explore on page eight. The University has also produced some Olympic hopefuls of their own, including the likes of Han-nah England and Louise Hazel, who we have profiled on pages four and five. In addition to the Lion, an Olympic microsite is to be launched on the Redbrick website as we continue to raise the bar with our sports coverage. We hope you enjoy the issue. Sam Price

Raphael Sheridan

@redbricksports

The Lion would like to thank:

Tim SmithUBSport

www.redbrickpaper.co.uk/olympics

Athlete ProfilesExclusive InterviewsEvent PreviewsComment PiecesVideos and AudioAnd much more...

Launching soon...Scan this code with your smartphone to get notified

3April 2012 redbrickpaper.co.ukTHE LION

At the back end of last term, from 14-18th March, Birmingham's best teams and individuals descended upon Sheffield to compete in the prestigious British University and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Champion-ships. There were mixed fortunes for Brum, as the two big hopes, the women's hockey firsts and wom-en's lacrosse firsts fell agonisingly short in their respective champi-onship finals. However, there were also significant success stories, no-tably the men's squash, whose first team took a silver medal and sec-ond team took gold. Brum's collec-tive performance leaves them fifth in the BUCS standings approach-ing the end of the season.

Women's HockeyBidding for an unprecedented third consecutive championship title, the women's hockey firsts succumbed 2-1 in the final to Dur-ham. Two goals down at half-time, Brum dominated the second half and pulled a goal back through Kirsty Dawson but couldn't force the equaliser, and would have to settle for silver.

Women's LacrosseA titanic final saw the women's lacrosse firsts fall heartbreakingly short as they went down 10-9 to Cambridge having led 9-8 with just minutes remaining. Hat-tricks from Kirsten Lafferty and Alice Bruynseels were not enough for Birmingham as the score changed hands regularly, with Cambridge seizing the initiative when it mat-tered most.

Track CyclingOn the weekend of the 24th March the University's cycling club took to the Newport Velodrome in Wales, coming first with 68 points. Star of the show was Ciara Horne, who set a new student record when taking gold in the women's 3km individu-al pursuit. Lara Nyman and Laura McCormack also impressed, tak-ing silver in the team sprint.

Men's SquashThe men's squash teams com-pleted a remarkable season with

some stirring performances at the BUCS Finals. The firsts dumped out Loughborough in the semi-final before putting up a brave fight against a star-studded Bristol UWE, who beat them narrowly to take gold. The seconds went one better however, and retained the BUCS Trophy with an imperious 5-0 win in the final.

BadmintonAn excellent season for the bad-minton club had seen both the men and women's first teams earn their place in the Championship fi-nals, where stiff opposition await-ed them. The men went down to a strong Loughborough, while the women succumbed to an impres-sive Leeds Met. Alyssa Lim and Andrew Wainwright were among the top performers for Brum on the day.

ClimbingThe University's climbing team secured a fantastic result in Shef-field to come sixth overall. James Kay, who narrowly missed out on a medal, and Annie Byass were among the impressive performers. Captain Alex Dexter said: 'I am re-ally proud of the team as they have lived up to their potential and could not have offered any more.'

Martial ArtsThere were plenty of outstanding performances from Birmingham competitors in the Judo and Kara-te individual competitions. It was

Chris Gann and Annie Smith who took the glory in the judo, both of them picking up silver medals for the under 81kg low and under 70kg low categories respectively. Jacob Hawkins did the best of the karateka to take bronze in the 84kg category having won two matches with Mawashi Geris (roundhouse kicks) to the head and another on a judge’s decision.

Men's VolleyballBirmingham men’s volleyball team capped off their season by finishing fifth in the BUCS Cham-pionships, an improvement on last year's seventh. After initial defeats against Loughborough and Edin-burgh, Brum ended on a high with two victories against Southampton and Bournemouth.

FencingOnly a handful of Birmingham fencers reached the finals, with the men and women's teams crashing out at the last 16 stage. There were strong showings from Pascal Dela-ney and Maxwell Rowe-Hayes, but the stand-out performance came from Rosie Davies, who claimed bronze in the épée contest.

Mixed fortunes for Brum at BUCS

The BUCS Championships in photos

George Killick: Lacrosse & Cycling Meurig Gallagher: Volleyball Charlotte Wilson: Fencing & Climbing

MedalsGoldCiara Horne (Cy-cling)Men's Squash 2nds (trophy)

SilverMen's Squash 1stsWomen's HockeyWomen's LacrosseChris Gann & Annie Smith (Judo)Lara Nyman & Laura McCormack (Cycling, team sprint)Swimming 2nds

BronzeJacob Hawkins (Karate)Rosie Davies (Fencing)

For full reports and photos of all the action go to www.redbrickpa-per.co.uk/bucs

Current Standings

1 Loughborough2 Durham3 Bath4 Leeds Met5 Birmingham6 Edinburgh7 Exeter8 Manchester9 Nottingham10 Oxford

Name: Vicki Hawkins

Degree: PhD Chemical Engineering (2010)

Discipline: Water PoloBio: The 27-year-old was born and raised

in Birmingham and has been playing water polo since she was 13. She has been in the Eng-

land elite squad since 2007 and was in the team that received a bronze medal at the 2011 Four Nations. As well as her PhD, she is studying for a Graduate

d i - ploma in Law.

Ex-University of Birmingham uni-versity student Hannah England will be meticulously fine-tuning her preparation ahead of London 2012 as it draws closer. After her spectacular outing at the 2011 World Championships last sum-mer, where England picked up a hard-earned silver medal in the 1500m, the spotlight will be on the Oxford-born athlete to deliver another stellar performance at the Olympic Games.

Her plan to this point has been executed with calculated

p r e c i s i o n . England has attended two UK Athletics training camps in Kenya and seems to be in fine physical shape. The Briton demonstrated the benefits she gained from these camps when claiming the 3000m UK indoor title in February, giv-ing her an ideal endurance base from which to work from. Along with her highly regarded coach, Bud Baldaro, England will now be carefully tailoring her programme according to the specific demands of the 1500m event. It is of para-

mount importance for a middle distance runner to possess the ability to shift through the gears in the final stages of a race. England has this weapon in her locker, as demonstrated in Daegu last Au-gust, and will be looking to imple-ment more speed-orientated ses-sions into her programme in the coming weeks.

One of the biggest obstacles the defending UK 1500m cham-pion must overcome between now and the Games is the expectation levels she carries on her shoulders since her world championship exploits last year. But England is well equipped to deal with this

pressure. The experience

s h e

g a i n e d from Dae-gu last summer; d e a l i n g with the r o u n d s , s t a y i n g

even tem-pered, as well as remain-

ing utterly focused on her own performances, will have given her valuable experience that she will no doubt apply in London. Also, the Biochemistry graduate is un-der no illusions as to the strength of her competition and the enor-mity of the challenge ahead. This will allow her to implement the same ‘under the radar’ mind-set that she adopted so successfully in Daegu and will ease some of the pressure she places on herself. With a world medal already to her name, England will arrive in Lon-don with a spring in her step and seems well poised to deliver an-other strong performance in the biggest tournament of her career.


Alumni aiming

Name: DeanMiller

Degree: BA Sport, Physical Education and Coaching Sci-

ences (2011) Discipline: Track Mixed

Bio: In 2011 Miller not only completed his final year of study, but competed in the IWAS World Junior Champion-ships (800m bronze, 1500m gold), Paralympic World Cup (800m 6th) and German

National Paralympic Championships (800m

silver). The experience will stand him in good stead

for the games.

Name: Susie Gilbert

Degree: BA Geography (2012)Discipline: Hockey

Bio: 22-year-old Gilbert is a regular fixture on the

women’s Great Britain hockey squad. She is part of their pro-gramme based at Bisham Abbey Na-tional Sports Centre, where the team train together four times a week. In 2010 Susie won three bronze medals with England hockey for the Champi-

ons Trophy, World Cup and Com-monwealth Games. She also won

two BUCS Championship titles with the University of Birming-

ham team.

Name: Naomi Folkard

Degree: Music (2005)Discipline: Archery

Bio: The 28-year-old, who has been shooting since

she was seven and began competing internationally

at 13, has been a competi-tor at both the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. She won the double World Cup gold in 2007 and was unlucky not to earn a medal in Beijing. A talented violinist

and pianist, she regularly plays in the University of

Birmingham Orchestra in her spare time.

Name: Luke Gunn

Degree: BSc Sports and Material Sciences (graduated 2006)

Discipline: 3000m Steeplechase

Bio: In July 2011, Gunn won the UK National Champion title for the third year in a row. The 27-year old is currently on a 12 month sabbatical from his role as University of Birmingham

Sport Scholarship Man-ager to focus on his bid

to make the GB team for London 2012.

Frankie ConwaySport Writer

HANNAH ENGLAND

Illustrations by Elin Stone

Louise Hazel has certainly come a long way since she finished seventeenth in the Heptathlon as a fresh-faced 20-year-old at the 2006 European Champion-ships. The French Studies alum-nus rocketed onto the world scene when she claimed the gold medal for England in the 2010 Com-monwealth Games in Delhi. In an in-t e r -

view w i t h R e d -b r i c k S p o r t s h o r t l y after her success, she described it as a dream coming true and a ‘surreal experience’, but if she is to land an Olympic medal this sum-mer then it will surely surpass all previous achievements.

Hazel cited the University of Birmingham’s academics as a major reason for studying here and after graduating she con-tinued to work in the Munrow sports centre as a sports scholar-ship assistant and mentor. The mental strength she has displayed in balancing her studies, sport and social life is certainly a major plus for somebody competing in one of the most difficult Olympic sports, consisting of seven in-dividual events; 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200m, long jump, javelin and 800m. Hazel has gone on the record saying ‘us British girls mean business’ and she won’t be one to shirk the chal-lenge when the Heptathlon finally gets underway at the Olympic Sta-dium on Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th August.

Now 26, Hazel is arguably entering her prime as an athlete, and is only a year younger than her inspiration Denise Lewis was when she claimed gold at the Syd-ney Olympics back in 2000. The Southwark-born athlete will be looking to surpass the favourite,

her rival

J e s s i c a Ennis, who i s the current European and former World champion, as well as being the poster girl for 2012 Games. That will take some doing, but Hazel remains focused as she en-ters the crux of her preparation. She tweeted: 'I feel in great shape. Will be off to a training camp in May to add the final touches'. If she goes into the Olympics on top form then she may well achieve that coveted place on the podium and make the University of Bir-mingham an extremely proud institution.

5April 2012 redbrickpaper.co.ukTHE LION

Name: Julian Adeniran

Degree: LLB Law (2010)Discipline: 110m Hurdles

Bio: The reigning BUCS Championship gold medallist

for 110m Hurdles has designs on competing at London

2012. The former VP Sport set new personal bests over 60m Hurdles in the indoor season, and now turns his attentions

to qualifica-tion for the

Olympics.

Name: Non Stanford

Degree: BSc Sport and Exercise Sciences

(2010)Discipline: Triathlon

Bio: Stanford began competing in Triathlon in 2008 following an in-jury from cross-country running, where she turned to swimming for rehabilitation.

By 2009 she was a top triathlete and

won her first bronze medal at the 2010 Premium European

Cup in Brasschaat, Bel-gium.

Name: Lora Turnham

Degree: BSc PhysiotherapyDiscipline: Cycling

Bio: Along with her sighted pilot Bex Rimmington, Lora has taken the Para-

Cycling world by storm. In 2011 she won silver in both the Para-Cycling World Cup and

Para-Cycling Track Championships. Her achieve-ments are all the more impressive considering the she only began her sporting career in 2009 after being talked into trying cycling by a close

friend.

Name: Pamela Relph

Degree: BSc Physics (2011)

Discipline: RowingBio: Relph was part of the

team that took two gold medals in 2011 at the World

Cup in Munich and the World Championships in Slovenia. In her time at Birmingham, she also captained the Univer-

sity’s award-win-ning cheerlead-

ing squad the Birmingham

P u s s y -cats.

Name: Simon Mantell

Degree: BCom Com-merce (2007)

Discipline: Hockey Bio: Mantell

has had a suc-cessful career

with GB and Eng-land hockey, collecting 116 international caps since his debut in Novem-ber 2005. He was mem-ber of the England hockey squad which came fifth in the 2006 World Cham-pionships. The 27-year

old forward currently plays for Reading

hockey club.

for London 2012James Phillips

Deputy Editor

LOUISE HAZEL

started with him when he was 15,’ said Fitzroy Davies, coach to Olympian athlete and former

World Judo Champion Craig Fallon. ‘He wasn’t a black belt, but we were working together until he retired the other day.’

‘Why has he retired?’, I asked. Fallon is 29 years old and ought to be in his prime. Lon-don 2012 was made for such an athlete, and I was not expecting what followed.

‘He didn’t get on with the people who were in charge of the British Judo Association (BJA) and his performance in Beijing (where he finished 7th) played on his mind. He’s a complex person, and once something gets into his head, that’s it. If they had changed the organisa-tion then maybe we’d be talking about Craig going to London.’‘What do you mean?’‘He didn’t get on with the per-formance staff. They said to us, ‘You’ve got to move to Dartford’, and forced us there. He was the most senior player in the whole British team and it was where the BJA and Sport England put some money in there - £5m or so - but the town is a white ele-phant and after these games I'm sure it’ll close.’

Underneath the glossy frontier of success, and behind the slick PR emanating from London in the run-up to 2012, there’s a worrying sense that all is not well behind the scenes with Judo. I ask him about Sport England, the body who supply funding to the BJA and who have become increasingly powerful in Judo. The answer comes back very quickly. 'We all know everyone needs funding, but there’s a balance and Sport England are running the show for British Judo. Just the other day, they took £350,000 off the BJA.’

Davies is one of the best judo trainers in the business. Born and bred in Wolverhampton, he is a fifth dan and has been teach-ing at the University’s club for years. His thirty years of train-ing, you’d hope, would count for something in the run-in to an Olympic games.

‘Sport Eng-land have been involved in Judo for quite a bit of time. I was told by Clive Wood-ward, ‘This is your team’, and I ended up working for an-other 20 peo-ple. Before Bei-jing, Craig was World Champion. Then they said, ‘no, this is how we’re going to do it’ and when it goes wrong the first person they blame is the coaches.’

Davies is controlled throughout the session, but there’s an intensity to his words that weren’t there last time I

interviewed him after a light-hearted training session. We get on to the subject of Beijing preparations.

‘The year leading up to the games they had Craig next to this other guy try-ing to qualify, and it was unsettling him. All he needed was to sort out strate-gies and plan, but no, they had us running around Europe and the World. It came to Austria where he had to win, but then his head was gone, but he was already quali-fied! I went with him to Beijing and his mental state was not good. When he went to Cairo in 2005 (when he won the World Championship, it was a different atmosphere and that was just me him. At the 2008 Olympics, it wasn’t OK.’

After being tipped for medal success before Beijing, Fallon finished in seventh place in the -60kg category; a gutting result for such a promising athlete.

‘He has bad blood with them now,’ says Davies when asked how Fallon feels, ‘the Olympics were always his dream. When he was a kid, he had the rings tattooed on his shoulder. That’s where his dream was. In London, he’d have been in his prime, but the system broke him.’ Davies finds himself now, in his words ‘frozen out of the BJA.’

We move on to talking about Britain’s 2012 prospects, albeit with slightly less optimism than before I began speaking to him.

‘Oh, I’d love a British player to win in London at the Olym-pics, I really would,’ he assures me, ‘but the British team have got the Euros this weekend and you’ll see from that; make your own decisions from it. They’ve

left it so late for the players to start getting themselves pre-pared for 2012; come the Olym-pics, our play-ers could end up fighting world champs. That’s the problem.’

We’re com-ing to the end of our conversa-tion. I can’t help but ask whether he’ll be watching this summer.

‘I may be watching James

Austin. He went to the Univer-sity of Birmingham’ And Craig?

‘I don’t think Craig will be watching it.’

As we part, I’m left with a sobering thought as the nation heads towards its moment of glory in the summer: not every athlete is enjoying the ride.

ycling is fast be-coming one of the most popular British sports. In the past decade it’s been the

recipient of increased funding from UK Sport and the National Lottery and has reaped the re-wards, leading to a record haul of 14 medals at the Beijing Olym-pics while also producing two Sports Personality of the Year winners in Chris Hoy and Mark Cavendish. At the University of Birmingham, despite being a relatively small club, cycling is go-ing from strength to strength, as shown in the Brit-ish Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Track Championships last month when the squad topped the university charts, gaining 68 BUCS points. This was in no small part down to the exploits of scholar Ciara Horne, who won two gold medals: one in the women’s scratch race, and one even more impressively in the 3km individual pursuit, in which she smashed a track re-cord that had stood for nearly 13 years, crossing the line in 3:46.581, over ten seconds fast-er than the previous record. In Horne the University have a su-per prospect on their books, and the second-year physiotherapy student believes she can go even faster.

‘I caught rival Corinne Hall on the eighth lap and started celebrating which cost me some time, until I thought ‘keep going you idiot!’ and got back into it. If I hadn’t pratted about I could have got a much faster time, so next year I’m hoping to destroy the record!’ Horne added to her medal haul last weekend with victory in the BUCS 10 mile time-trial (TT), which represented a less familiar distance than her

favoured 3km. ‘I was happy with that, to be hon-

est I’ve never paced a 10 mile TT so

badly in my life, I went out way too hard and was suffering for the last eight

miles. I think I could have ridden

a minute quicker, but to pace it like

a donkey and still win shows how much I’ve come on!’ It certainly has, and the attitude of perfection-

ism is a refresh-ing one, which will

surely stand Horne in good stead as she

plots her route to the top of the sport.

Her story is an interest-ing one, having been a prodigal swimmer until injury forced her retirement at the age of 16.

‘I had surgery on my shoulder and could never have regained the strength to train at that elite level, so I had no choice but to take on another sport, as the Olympics is my dream.’ Horne tried triathlon at the University of Birmingham, linking up with coach Steve Lumley, but a lack of fondness for running com-bined with a succession of in-juries led her to decide it wasn’t for her, and she handed back her scholarship. A year later she was

winning BUCS medals in a completely new sport, cycling. ‘After an eighth month break from sport, which felt like a lifetime, I took up cycling, so I was effectively starting from scratch. I got into it and com-peted in BUCS in my first year and managed to pick up a few medals,

which was a surprise. After less than a year cycling I was picked up the Ireland squad and I end-ed up taking a year out to focus on qualifying for the Olympics, so it all happened very quickly.’

Sadly for Horne Ireland missed out on qualification, so her dream will have to be put on hold as she sits out London 2012. I asked her what sepa-rates Olympians from other ath-letes. ‘The athletes that will be competing in the Olympics will undoubtedly be nervous as the Olympic Games are the pinnacle of any athlete’s career. However these athletes will have years of international experience and will know how to deal with the pres-sure. They have very good sports psychologists on board their team to help them with this. I think to reach the top you’ve got to be very single-minded, driven and focused and, personality-wise, Olympians are different. Talent only gets you so far. To get to the top of your game it’s about how hard you’re going to work to achieve your goals; how much you want to be the best.’

The University have been very supportive of Horne, allow-ing her longer placements for her physiotherapy degree which allows her to balance it with her rigorous training schedule. She is also sponsored by Birming-ham-based Brotherton Cycles, who provide her with top of the range specialized bikes and kit, and she cites Rebecca Milnes as a big influence within the coach-ing set-up at Birmingham. Hav-ing an outside support network is crucial in making your way as an elite athlete, but to the reach the very top you must possess a special formula, and Horne’s in-ner drive is remarkable. When quizzed on her career aspira-tions, she replied without hesi-tation, ‘Olympic gold.’ If she builds on her serene progress as a cyclist so far, Ciara Horne could well be a name to look out for in future Olympics.


'I

THE OLYMPICS: MAKE OR

BREAK

C

Talent only gets you so far. To get the top of your game it's about how hard you're going to work to achieve your goals.

Olympic ExperienceDavies coached Craig Fallon to the Beijing Games

A TALE OF TWO ATHLETES

Future Olympian?Horne has her heart set on Rio 2016 after missing out this year

Every athlete has a story. Sam Price talked to elite-level cyclist and 2016 Olympic hopeful Ciara Horne about her optimism in pursuit of her dream. Raphael Sheridan caught up with the University's idiosyn-cratic Judo coach Fitzroy Davies whose story highlights how the Olympic dream can become a nightmare.

The Olympics were always his dream...

In London, he’d have been in his prime, but the sys-tem broke him.


comesBOLTIn less than one hundred days time, the Olympic games will have begun. Athletes from countries all over the world are flooding in to take part in London 2012, and while many will be based in the Athletes' village in Stratford, many more have elected to locate them-selves elsewhere in the country. Competition for the best bases is fierce, both between the national teams involved and for the sites

themselves: it is a mark of high prestige to be se-

lected by an Olympic team.

T h i s process

of se-l e c -t i o n

turned out to be a

relative coup for B i r m i n g h a m ,

both the city and the Uni-versity, as two of the stron-gest sporting nations in the world elected to base their

athletics com-petitors here.

The city in general saw the boost of the

American sprint team, studded with reigning

world champions Jesse Wil-liams (high jump), Jennifer Simp-son (1500m) and Carmelita Jeter (100m), choosing to train at the International Athletics Stadium in the Perry Barr area of town. How-ever the University of Birmingham

itself landed perhaps the most attractive prospect of all when the mighty Jamaican track team agreed to base themselves on the University of Birmingham cam-pus. The spotlight will be on the newly re-laid Munrow Track this summer when some of the most recognisable names in the world of athletics will be put through their paces ahead of the Olympics. These include 100m champion Yohan Blake, 200m champion Veronica Campbell – Brown and arguably the most famous sports star on the planet, Usain Bolt.

Bolt is a man born for the world stage. From his penchant for outrageous poses and his natu-ral ease in front of a camera (check out his star turns in the Virgin Me-dia or MasterCard adverts) down to his spectacularly apt surname, he is such a recognisable face that it is surprisingly easy to forget the real reason for his fame: his in-credible pace. He recently declared in interview that his intention was to run a time of 9.4 seconds in the 100m. This would knock two tenths of a second off his own World Record time of 9.58 and is a full 1/3 of a second faster than where the World Record stood at when he first broke it four years ago. This claim may seem prepos-terous, but where 'Lightning Bolt' is concerned, anything seems pos-sible.

There is no doubt that it will be exciting to see such athletes gather here on our own campus. But there are other, more quanti-fiable benefits involved: the ath-letes and their entourages will be eating, sleeping and living in the local area. These will all provide a welcome bolster for our local economy as well as enhancing the international reputation of the city and the University.

The deal to bring the team here was signed in February 2010 by City Councillor Mike Whitby, who spoke of his delight at con-tinuing the 'special relationship' between Birmingham and Jamai-ca. Birmingham has always been a capital of multiculturalism and has links with a huge number of different countries and communi-ties, but one of the most notable of these has always been Jamaica. Fa-mous Rastafarian poet Benjamin Zephaniah grew up in the Hand-sworth district of the city, and later described it as 'the Jamaican Capital of Europe'. It is perhaps partially a nod to this legacy that Birmingham was picked.

But this is the Olympics, the pinnacle of athletic competition, and there is no way that a team would risk damaging their prepa-ration for such a momentous oc-casion simply to 'commemorate their heritage'. That the University of Birmingham is regarded as a training venue of Olympic quality is testament to the hard work of the UB Sport team (who inciden-tally boast Olympic hopeful Luke Gunn as their Sports Scholarship Manager) and is something that every student at this University can be rightly proud of.

The 400m hurdler is the pres-ent World and Olympic gold

medallist, and the time she posted in the 2009

World Championship is the second fastest time

ever set in the 400m hur-d l e s . However, she lost out to American Lashinda Demus in last year's World Championship, who posted the third fastest time

ever in the event.

Campbell-Brown is virtu-ally unstoppable in the 200m. She won the event

in both the 2004 and 2008 Olympics and in Beijing ran

the fastest time recorded in a decade. Unsurpis-

ingly, she's the reigning world champion too, having beaten

Carmelita Jeter by 0.15 seconds.

'If I domi-

n a t e t h e O l y m -p i c s , I'll be a l i v i n g

l e g e n d . A living l e g e n d

w a l k i n g a r o u n d .

S o u n d s good.' Bolt, it

seems, simply needs to turn up

to guarantee him-self a gold medal. His intention is

to run the

1 0 0 m in 9.4 s e c o n d s , and the

200m in 19 sec-onds. If he were to

accomplish that, his leg-endary status would be com-

fortably achieved. To put that into context, the present world re-

cords, held by Bolt, are 9.58 seconds and 19.19 seconds. For Bolt to run 9.40 sec-onds, it would require him to cover almost 10.5 metres a second.

Yet, before he is adorned too quickly, a word of caution. Despite displaying an almost effortless aura of calm in previous races, Bolt spectacularly false-started in last year's 100m World Championship final: the gold medal went to fellow Ja-maican Yohan Blake. That, perhaps, is the first chink in what was previously a virtually impenetrable armour. His performances in the 200m last year were predictably world-class, and his 2011 World Champion-ship time of 19.40 seconds is the fastest time ever to be a world record.

to

He is the young-est man to break

the ten second mark, and Blake pulled off a

huge upset when he won the 2011 100m World Champion-ship gold medal. He had it easier, mind, after Bolt false-started. His

fastest 100m time is 9.82 seconds, signif-

cantly slower than the present world

record, and po-tentially half a

second off t h e

pace in 2012.Yet he is a gen-uine threat, especially in the

200m where he

has posted the second fastest time ever (19.26 s e c o n d s ) . Another po-tential up-set is on the cards.

3

Yohan Blake

Melanie Walker

Veronica Campbell-Brown

Has held the 100m world record

for three years between 2005-08

and has run under 10 seconds a record break-

ing 75 times. Yet 2012 represents his final

chance to achieve an Olympic medal.

At the Beijing Olympics, Stewart

won the silver med-al in the 100m and bronze in the 200m.

She has also posted the fastest 100m time

ever to win (10.75 seconds).

Kerron Stewart

1Usain Bolt

7

4

6

The reign-i n g Olym-p i c g o l d m e d -a l l i s t o v e r 1 0 0 m

yet, surpris-ingly, she's the only Ja-

maican woman in history to hold

the title. In the 2009 World Cham-

pionships, she bet-tered her Olympic time of 10.78 by five

one hundredths to set her

current

personal best time. In October 2010, she was suspended for six months after taking inappropriate medication for toothache. Coming in to the 2011 World Championships, her prepa-rations were stalled through injury, and she finished fourth in the final, missing out on a medal by just one hundredth of a second. Veronica Camp-bell-Brown took the silver, but Fraser-Pryce's main competitor is doubtless the gold medallist, Amer-ican Carmelita Jeter. Should Jeter remain injury free, a fasci-nating 2012 race awaits.

5

2 Shelly-

Ann Fraser-Pryce

Asafa Powell

BRUM James DoltonLion Deputy Editor

In July, the world's best sprinters head to the

University to train ahead of the Olympics.

James Dolton assesses the impact that it

will have on the University, on

Birmingham, and on UB Sport...

EXCLUSIVE

Documents

The Lion - April 2012