by Stuart Weir
Darryl Neita, photo by British Athletics
This is part 2 of Stuart Weir’s series on Darryl Neita, a British sprinter who broke 11 seconds four times. Darryl speaks to Stuart about going from good to elite. It is a fascinating story.
Making the breakthrough
For several years, Darryl Neita has been a very good 100m sprinter but with three or even four sub 11 runs in 2021, she broke into real world-class.
There is no secret – other than talent and hard work – “I think it was my consistency and that I was in a good flow. I just remained patient, trusting the process, trusting my coach, trusting my environment, and trusting myself when I was on the track. I was in my flow and it just happened. That is what it’s all about you find the sweet spot and you just keep going. I think that’s what happened”.
Darryl Neita, photo by British Athletics
In 2019 she made a big decision, to step out of her comfort zone and leave behind the familiar London scene to train in America: “It was a big decision because I’ve been training in the UK my whole life but I felt that I needed to get to the next level. Going to America is not easy. You don’t pick up your stuff and just go. You’re changing your environment. You’re changing your surroundings. There are cultural differences. But I just knew that I needed the next stage so I packed up and went to America. And it was great, the next stage was amazing. It taught me a lot and shaped me into the athlete I am today”.
Getting from 11. something to running sub 11 is partly physical but many observers would say that Darryl has had those attributes for several years but was never quite able to deliver. She believes that the mental side is just as important and that it is in that area where she has developed most through training in America: “It’s not just getting on the track and running. There’s a lot more to it. I would say that the last two years have really toughened me up. And has helped me to become a really mentally mature woman. You have to be mentally strong in this game. I think that’s what last year taught me more than anything. You have to be strong and you have to be confident in yourself. That takes a lot of mental strength”.
Darryl Neita, photo by British Athletics
The coaching was good in America but just as important as training on a daily basis with the world’s best: “I feel so privileged to have trained alongside some of the greatest athletes of all time, just watching their drive and the way they train and the mental aspect that goes into it. The whole package is so inspiring. It is just great to be around Olympic champions, world champions, medalists and to see how they approach things and how they train. The mindset they have going into the competition. Overall it was really inspiring and I believe that it played a massive part in the growth that I had last year as an athlete. I learned so much from my teammates. I learned to attack what you’re doing rather than just floating through the motions. A lot about it is the mental aspect and a mental change in terms of your approach to training”.
Another part of the jigsaw is staying fit. She recalls an earlier time in her career when she seemed beset by injuries: “the problem in the past was that I wasn’t able to train a full program because I was often injured. So it’s been great to mature as an athlete and to be able to get through the program. And then to see the results on the track. It was also a case of training hard and learning how to train hard. A lot has changed in the last 3 years – for example. the volume of work without having so many setbacks and injuries”.
Darryl Neita, photo by British Athletics
Another inspiration in 2021 was seeing Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce running 10.6 in Lausanne, a race in which Darryl ran a 10.9: “That was probably one of the most inspiring things in the season that has gone – to see Shelly-Ann at the top of her career, having had a child, come back and run even faster. That is a real inspiration for athletes like myself to see that she has not reached her peak but has more to come. And it’s inspiring for me to know that for me that age is still a decade away for me. I really feel that there’s still so much for me to achieve in the sport”
I was privileged to be in Tokyo, Lausanne, and Zurich and see her run sub 11 in each of them and to talk to it afterward. Having reached an Olympic final and run sub 11m in Tokyo, she could have been forgiven for coasting through the rest of the season – not a bit of it.
In Lausanne she ran 10.96, commenting: “I was happy that I was able to back it [the Tokyo time] up and show that I really am one of the best in the world”
Darryl Neita, photo by British Athletics
When we spoke in January, I reminded her that in Zurich (10.93) she told me that did not want to see sub 11 as special, because it has to be normal, and something she can keep doing. She replied: “It’s true. We see it over and over again. It’s not just a few girls who can run sub 11. I needed to change my mindset to recognize that I put in so much work and that I am more than capable of it. If you want to win individual medals -and I do want individual medals in my career, then it’s got to be sub 11 and beyond. You need to be looking to see 10.5 on the clock!
Then there’s Dina Asher-Smith’s GB record: “That is where I’m going next. I want that record. I have another 10th of a second to go”. Not necessarily tomorrow because she is in it for the long haul: “10 years ago I run my first sub 12 so it’s taken me a decade to gain another second. Everyone has their own journey and I truly believe that I was born to do track and field. It’s about being patient”.
