Gardener overcomes his 'limitations'

Jason Gardener revelled in his new status as a World champion. “It’s a big relief,” he said, having for once met the expectations of arriving at a global championship and delivering the performance expected of him.

“I think I’ve earned a beer, I haven’t had one for a long, long time. And I’ve got to find Malcolm. All he said to me after the race was, ‘Well done. I’ll see you back at the hotel’. That’s was it. That’s Malcolm all over.”

“Malcolm” is Gardener’s coach of two years, Malcolm Arnold. The eminence gris of British track coaching, the Welshman has long had a put-upon, seen-it-all-before demeanour. But then, as someone who coached his first Olympic champion more than 30 years ago, Arnold really has seen it all before.

Hampered by Injury

Gardener was effusive in his praise for his coach. “Before, I always used to think I had limitations,” said the sprinter, who although he had previously won two World indoor bronzes and has twice been European Indoor champion, has had his career hampered by regular bouts of injury, his “limitations”.

Indeed, Gardener struggled with a back complaint so badly, he found it impossible to drive his car. Since his move to Arnold, Gardener no longer needs a chauffeur: “I’ve worked harder than ever before, I’ve worked harder than I thought I could work. And now the limitations don’t exist any more.”

Living in the elegant Georgian city of Bath, in south-west England, Gardener has always been outside the usual circle of British sprinting, which has tended to be based in London. So when, three years ago, Arnold retired as the head coach of UK Athletics to take a post setting up an elite athletics programme a the University of Bath, it was perhaps inevitable that the city’s finest sprinter should end up working with him.

Akii-Bua and Jackson

Arnold’s first great coaching success came 32 years ago at the Munich Olympics. He was a young, tyro coach who went to work in deepest Africa on a development programme in 1970, and while there discovered John Akii-Bua, who he developed swiftly into a world-beating star, winning the 400m hurdles title at Munich in world record time.

Since when, Arnold returned to Britain, working in various national coach capacities, principally best known for discovering and developing the huge talent of Colin Jackson, taking the gangling teenaged decathlete from Cardiff and moulding him into the finest sprint hurdler the world has seen.

Now Arnold, together with some advice from Jackson (“Colin knows so much about the meets on the circuit,” Gardener said), has helped Gardener to make the step up to a global title, as well as dominate the indoor season: before this winter, only one man had ever managed to run inside 6.50 five times in a season, as Gardener has done in 2004, and that was Maurice Greene.

It is an indicator, Gardener believes, that points towards a better summer season than he has had for some time. “I have total confidence in Malcolm,” Gardener said. “He’s so knowledgeable, I accept his judgement in everything.

“I’d worked with my previous coach since I was very young, and we had been very successful, and I am still grateful to him. But I think you reach a stage where you have to move on, you need a change, and move up to tha next level and that’s what Malcolm’s done for me.

“I’ve shown, by coming here as the fastest in world and wining the world title, that I can handle the pressure, that I am a true champion.

“Now I want to fulfil my potential outdoors, too,” said Gardener, who 10 years ago won the 100m silver medal at the IAAF World Juniors. “This summer, I’m going to be starting with a blank sheet, it’ll be like there’s a new athlete out there.” He’ll be working with an old, shrewd coach.