As a 16 year-old who had just finished his GCSE’s, it’s unlikely that when David Omoregie watched the first day of the men’s decathlon at the London Olympics, he ever envisaged that three years on he would be competing in the stadium himself, not least as a hurdler.
At the time the Welshman was not only a multi-eventer, but an injured one too, and having missed the entirety of the 2012 season, he began to wonder what the future held for him in the sport: “At the time I was going the multi-events rather than the hurdles, but I was injured for the whole of 2012, I went to go and see the first day of the decathlon and it was just amazing.” he recalls. “To be honest I never thought I’d be here competing because everything was in question marks at that time. I had a really bad knee injury and I was’t really sure what going to happen.”
Persuaded to change to just hurdles after both the injuries and success in the individual event whilst training for the decathlon, the athlete has gone onto forge himself as one of Team GB’s most promising athletes.
Now just three years on from London 2012, as he lines up against the Olympic champion Aries Merritt in the in the stadium where the American champion had his crowning moment, Omoregie will have his first big chance to produce a performance that can convince the British public that he too could one day be an Olympic gold medallist.
While it may sound an ominous task for most, he is a precarious talent who’s junior success since making the permanent switch to the one event makes for good reading. It includes becoming a world junior bronze medallist in 2014 and the new European under-23 champion in Estonia just two weeks ago.
Even so as he lines up for the heats of Friday’s 110 metre hurdles competition it really will be a step up in competition and a trip into the unknown.
Making the race perhaps even the hardest of his career? “Definitely, I think most of the guy’s PB’s are below 13.3, so it’s going to be a really fast race. I’m just hoping that on top of a really fast race it is going to push me on for a really fast time which I feel like I’m capable of doing.”
With his own PB currently standing at 13:55, Omoregie is some way of the standards of the majority of the field. Nevertheless he remains in high spirits for the competition and is hoping that it can inspire him to future success: “I see this weekend as a really good opportunity to run well, I’ve trained really well these last few weeks.”
“I see this year as almost a transition year into the seniors from the juniors, it always takes a bit of time for a junior hurdler to transition into a senior hurdler.”
With that in mind Omoregie says he takes inspiration from the development of a number of the top athletes in Friday field, who’s successful transition from the junior ranks, he believes he can emulate one day: “If you look at most of the hurdlers like Pascal ML, Orlando Ortega, their transition from the junior hurdles to the senior hurdles took time.”
“I think 2017 is the year I really want to come out and be running fast so that’s what it lies with…For me it’s just about learning from the experience and then in two years time I’ll be able to go to a meet like this and be competitive and go for the top spots.”
