by Larry EderWe asked Alex Mills, one of our new additions to the RunBlogRun team, to write about all good things from Great Britain. Tonight, he wrote on Lynsey Sharp, the CG silver medalist and European silver medalist!
When Lynsey Sharp steps on to the fast track at the Great Stadium of Marrakech for the IAAF Continental Cup, she’ll know that she is just 2 minutes away from a place among a select few athletes. Running in the 800m for Team Europe she has the chance to claim her third medal of the season. Wearing a third different vest.
It is a fantastic achievement for any athlete, but an even more impressive one for a runner who has gone from struggling to break 2.03 in May to breaking the resistance of a world champion in August. After a turbulent build up to the season, Sharp, who was returning from a year out with injury, feared she faced a season racing on the domestic circuit: “I opened my season with a 2.06 and I was like ‘right I’m going to do loads of BMC’s and get back into racing’
After a breakthrough year in 2012 where she became a European gold medallist and made her first Olympic team, Sharp was beset with injuries in 2013. An issue so bad that it prevented her from making her return to action until April this year, where she finished last on her comeback.
With of lack of action came some concern that she was maybe a one off success or that maybe that her victory had been due to luck.
However the worst issue was the idea that she might miss out on another year of major championships. That would be bad in any year, but even worse in 2014 where she was supposed to be the poster girl of Scottish sport at the Commonwealth Games. Surely she wouldn’t suffer from the worst possible luck and miss it all?
Luckily that fate was avoided, as week by week Sharp began to improve. With almost every race she started to lower her season’s and then personal best times. Until eventually she had the Commonwealth qualifying standard..
From then on, there was no looking back; first she took the British 800m title and then the European races invites began to come.
Yet, despite her improvements, cynicism from some corners of the UK who pointed to the Scotswoman’s inability to yet run a time below 2 minutes, remained.
However her critics were proved wrong almost instantaneously, as Sharp went below that barrier in her next race at the Lausanne Diamond League, as the Scot produced the strong kick that would become vital later on down the line.
After two more strong runs in Madrid and Glasgow, focus then turned to the Commonwealth Games, having already run nine 800metre races in the season, the runner could no longer blame a lack of race fitness; it was all about how she could cope with the pressure..
Initially she struggled in the heats and Semi-final as it seemed she’d peaked too early. Little was it known that Sharp had been suffering with illness that was so bad that she was forced to go on a drip just hours before lining up on the start line.
Luckily the final came and the old Lynsey was back, conserving what energy she had left for a final kick for the line to roar home in second and become a Commonwealth silver medallist.
Following the race the headlines focused on her pre-race traumas and the hurdles that she had overcome to get there, but a little more should have been put on that finish.
Two weeks later and Sharp was back, this time in Zurich for the European Championships. Unlike in Glasgow, there was sluggishness in the prelims, as her new found front running style pushed her closer to the position as one of the title favourites.
The final came and once again she left nothing behind; choosing to lead from the front as part of a breakaway two with Belurussian, Arzamasova. The Scot continuously tried to break her opponent’s resilience, but it just wouldn’t snap. Instead Arzmasova eventually stretched away to claim victory to leave Sharp with silver and another Personal best, this time 1:58.80
Although she could have dwelled on her defeat she didn’t, she knew that she was now rightfully among the best not only domestically, but in Europe, maybe even the world.
Almost instantly she proved it; as she took advantage of the close knitted Diamond League schedule to produce two more sublime races in a week. First in Stockholm where she once more came home in second, before a first Diamond League victory in Birmingham, both times producing her instinctive final kick.
The secret to her finishing ability speed, Sharp says is her training with top sprint coach Rana Reider: “I have been working a lot with Reina Reider who’s done massive amounts of drills working on my technique, so that’s probably the main thing.” On the influence of her father Cameron Sharp a medallist Commonwealth medallist in the sprints she added: “I think because of my dad and stuff I feel like more of a sprinter anyway.”
In that race Sharp became only the 2nd athlete this season to beat Euniece Sum and she would do it again last week in Brussels. Coming from behind once more Sharp out-nodded her opponent on the line to finish second to Brenda Martinez.
Fast forward to this weekend and Sharp of Team Europe will take on Sum of team Africa, after 2 victories in as many races the Scotswoman is confident she can do it again even without a pacemaker: “I’m not sure how Marrakech will be as obviously there won’t be a pacemaker, so yeah I think I can take her again.”
Who’d bet against her, especially after the season she’s had?
