by Stuart Weir
Allyson Felix, photo by Philip Oldham
Allyson Felix may hold the record for having been on the most of our magazine covers. From American Track & Field, to Athletes Only, to California Track & Running News, Allyson Felix has been there. One of the finest athletes of her generation, Allyson can race from 100 meters to 400 meters. I have always challenged her to run the 400 meter hurdles, but she smiles and gives a definitive no. Stuart Weir interviewed Allyson here, at the Manchester Great CityGames, one of my favorite events.
Great City Games
Allyson Felix is back in Manchester, competing in the 150m, run on a straight track along one of Manchester’s main roads. Felix has won the Manchester 150m in two previous years, setting a track record in 2013 of 16.36. In 2011 she also won the straight 200m.
Felix said of the City Games: “I’m excited. In a year like this these are the moments that are really fun. It is great to bring track and field to a different atmosphere and to expose people who might not come into the stadium. I think it’s really cool. Hopefully families will come, and it will be a fun event. It always cool to run something like a 150. I do run 150s in training but not straight ones. It’s so different that you don’t quite know where you are.
“Street Games are very different and not quite so intense. Sometimes I think it’s good for track to be that way because sometimes we put so much pressure on every single race that it’s nice to have a lighter feel”.
Felix, who is 32 and has won 17 World and Olympic titles, also revealed that she has no intention of retiring just yet. Asked what, with all her medals, there was left for her to achieve, she replied: “There’s always something left to achieve. I’m a competitor. I’m an athlete. I’m always setting goals for the year. There’s 2020 and the 400 and all that. I would like to do 2020 Olympics and maybe year after that. Probably not much more after that. That is kinda what I see for my future”.
Asked about her long-term coach, Bobby Kersee, she said: “it’s been a great partnership over the years. I think we have grown a lot together and just understand each other a lot. I think we are so different that it just works. I’m very laid back and he’s not! But it works. I think as I’ve grown up I have been able to find my voice with him. And we just have a really great relationship”.
England is where Allyson won her only individual Olympic gold medal and it is great to have her back.
