Friday 24 March 2017 13:13, UK
Getting ready to race an Olympic champion would be a pretty daunting prospect for most normal human beings. Sky Scholar Mark English is taking it in his stride.
English was unveiled as the 12th athlete to join the Sky Academy Sports Scholarships programme in April and the 22-year-old runner from Donegal is now aiming to shock an athlete he describes as the best ever in the two-lap race.
With his exams out of the way (English is a medical student in Dublin), the European Indoor 2015 silver medallist will take on Olympic 800m champion David Rudisha in a unique event on May 26 at the 'Golden Spike' meeting in Ostrava.
You think he's feeling nervous? Kenyan superstar Rudisha had better watch out. Here's English's first Scholarship blog on how he's aiming to shine on the Czech Republic track.
I’ve just finished watching the 2012 Olympic 800m final. David Rudisha wins it in case you don’t know and he manages to smash the world record running 1 minute 40.91 seconds. I’m watching it because like all 800m runners looking to be the best, I have to study my opponents.
No matter the greatness, there is always someone ready to fire the arrow into the achilles heel
I will need to know as much as possible about Mr Rudisha before racing against him over 600m in Ostrava.
When you watch him you realise he is probably the most technically flawless athlete to ever battle the two lap tango.
He has earned the title as King of our event and rightly so. At his most supreme, his powerful stride makes the rest of us look like sloggers in mud. But Rudisha has not been at his best lately, and that’s why I’m particularly excited about racing him. Even more so considering the distance being run in Ostrava is 600m – a seldom run distance that naturally favours the 400m/800m athlete.
You need shovels of speed sure, but without the speed endurance, there is no hope. I ran a time trial over 600m on a training camp in Austria last summer and having gone out too quickly over the first 200m, I paid the price on the last 100m.
My legs burned big time and I ran an unofficial 1:14.6. It was a good time, although still a shy of my best, and even more shy of the world record of 1:12.81 set by Andy Gray of the USA in 1986. But with the knowledge that Ostrava is a track renowned for its fast times, I think we will go very close to that record in two weeks’ time.
Tactics will be massive for this race. Managing to streamline will be important for most in the race, given that this is the shortest and fastest race (bar a 500m race) where athletes have the opportunity to tuck in and avoid the wind.
This is ideally the way most athletes would like to run – that is, being sheltered, running in lane 1, and also being on the shoulder of the leader ready to pounce. However, things seldom work out perfectly in middle distance races.
There are psychological factors, people can get shoved and plans inevitably get tweaked mid-race. Sometimes it’s wiser to run wide and avoid trouble than to try go for a gap and get disqualified or knocked to the floor. Mary Decker learned that the hard way at the LA Olympics in 1984 taking her infamous tumble to the infield.
So in order to make sure I can apply optimal tactics, I need to be fit enough. And so training has involved a lot of work aimed at trying to improve my aerobic endurance. Sessions like a long 9 mile run with 5k/10k race efforts built in to it have proven to aid my ability to recover after races – as evidenced at the European Indoors this year when I had to run 3 races in 3 days.
Nic Bideau is responsible for drawing up my training programmes and is doing a fantastic job. We collaborate about how to go about improving my weakness, but never forgetting my strengths, and working more on the latter come summer time. Since working with Nic as coach since October 2014 and George Petrakos as strength and coniditioning coach since 2013, we are starting to patch up those weaknesses.
Having watched Rudisha’s last few races I wonder if he has patched up his weaknesses.
Like everyone else in the field, if we can ever fancy our chances, now is the time. I know that I’ve done my work and study. There will be a big reward for that if the race goes perfectly. I want to break my unofficial personal best and take on the greatest athlete ever over my distance.
There is absoultely nothing to lose in trying to chase him down. No matter the greatness, there is always someone ready to fire the arrow into the achilles heel. I know I’m ready for this one.
Mark English is one of 12 athletes being supported through the Sky Academy Sports Scholarships scheme.
The Scholarships offer a programme of support tailored to each athletes specific requirements covering areas such as funding, media coaching, mentoring and wider developmental support.
