by Stuart Weir
George Mills – 3000m silver medalist
The men’s 3000m was really all about who would come second! Realistically, Jakob Ingebrigtsen was always going to win it. George Mills was determined to keep everyone honest – leading and pushing the pace on. Jakob eventually took the lead and was not going to be caught but equally never completely shook off Mills.
Mills, who finished second in 7:49.41, said afterwards: “I came here to win and to compete and that is what I tried to do. On paper, a silver was the bare minimum of what I should have so anything less would have been a disappointment. I guess we did what we expected but we need to improve.
“Watching the 3k races in Europeans in the past and the 1500 as well, looking at how they have been run and knowing how Jakob runs, of course you are aware of what he is going to do. I wanted to be the position up front so I was in control of where I wanted to be. I didn’t want to get caught out too far back and miss a jump when people made moves.
“You can see from the race I was always in a good position and able to defend various attacks when different people tried to move to the front. So I could have a very smooth controlled race, so I could get the most out of the race”.
George Mills is one of the most dedicated athletes I have ever encountered. In a recent chat with the GB athletics writers he explained his approach to life and training. Here are some of the highlights
“I spent the whole winter in Dullstroom, South Africa. Same as always. Eat, sleep, train. It’s a special place. I personally love it, hence why I spend so much time there. But there’s not much going on. Maybe a couple of coffee shops, a couple of restaurants. We’ve a gym set up, there’s some good trails to run on and for me that’s all I need…
“My lunch? Just chicken and rice. Not a lot. Simple. Flavour doesn’t make you fast”.
His assessment of Jakob says a lot about his approach: “Obviously he’s a phenomenal athlete. Everyone’s got a target on their backs right? So I’m going to Apeldoorn to compete. In this sport no one is invincible. If you do everything right yourself and you’re 100 per cent on the day, anything is possible”.
Mills, who is coached by Thomas Dreissigacker, the former German head athletics coach, is based in the Alps in the summer and South Africa or Spain in the winter. In a recent article It’s about more than medals, Dreissigacker described his method as combining “modern science with experience to develop athletes on – and off – the track”.
Talking about his training, he described it as “a high-volume threshold based system. So that’s what I’ve been doing for the last three and a bit years, slowly progressing that each year as we get older and able to take more training. The threshold system is fundamental for most high-level endurance runners now. And it’s what you do around that, that makes you perform to the level you need to. I guess the Norwegians were the first to do it with any great success. But there’s a lot of good examples now where athletes have used this training system and performed to the high level”.
Finally he gave an interesting perspective when asked if recent outstanding times were due to technological developments with tracks or shoes: “Neither of those two points have anything to do with it. I think it’s just improving. When all the athletes around each other are improving, it just continues to elevate. That’s all it is.
“If we look at the roads there’s obviously a very big benefit there [with shoes] but on the track it’s a slight benefit but I’m less convinced it’s the reason everyone is running fast. I think it’s just when people run quick, they also believe they can run quick. When the bar is at a certain level, you have to get to that level if you want to be able to compete. That’s all it is. And training – if you’re doing more training you’re going to get better. On a global scale, if talented athletes are doing more training there’s going to be faster times on the circuit”.
I found it refreshing listening to George, an athlete who gives straight answers and tells it like it is!
