Have fun, that’s the secret

You know, perhaps sometimes we take this all this track and field business a touch too seriously. Strange as it may sound, maybe the athletes do too.

It’s easy to lose a little perspective sometimes – surely Afghanistan’s 100m runner Lima Azimi reminded us of that. After all, it’s meant to be fun too isn’t it?

It’s easy to get all hyped up in the heat of competition – indeed, it’s difficult not to with all the media around tipping medallists and predicting champions – but it seems a more relaxed approach has some performance benefits too. I mean, you couldn’t imagine a more laid back 100m champion than the man from tiny St Kitts and Nevis, Kim Collins.

And the “having fun” approach certainly did the job for Carolina Kluft. Perhaps having fun while you work, well . . . works!

Linford Christie certainly thinks so. The long time coach and mentor to last night’s surprise 100m bronze medallist Darren Campbell, was in the mixed zone last night, enjoying the moment. The former World and Olympic champion, Christie knows a thing or two about handling the pressure of expectations. He knows a few tricks too, “just little things”, as he calls them, that he’s passed on to his pupil over the years.

Did anyone notice the way Campbell bounced out on to the track last night when the sprinters entered the arena, a big smile on his face, like he was glad to be there? “Well, that’s the secret,” says Christie. “It’s about relaxation. You’ve got to stay relaxed and by smiling, it relaxes your body.”

Unlike his compatriot Dwain Chambers, there was precious little pressure on Campbell, and that certainly helped. Few predicted he’d reach the final, never mind snatch a medal. As Christie said: “Dwain’s out there under a lot of pressure. But that’s what we do, we put pressure on them. Some people can deal with it and some can’t.”

“Darren is strong in the mind though. If you look at him he’s smiling, because it’s the best way to stay relaxed. I used to go out there and wave to the crowd, and it’s just little things like that, that Darren’s learned. And it works.

“Darren has been like my little apprentice since way back when. I used to have to wake him up early in the morning and bring him down the track to watch what I do, and learn. And finally it’s all coming to pass.”

“It’s about enjoying it,” adds Ron Roddan, Christie’s coach since even before “way back when”, and now a guiding hand for all his former pupil’s protégés. “It was like that with Kluft. She was like a little teenager out there.”

“She is great for the sport,” Christie agreed. “Because she brings the crowd out and she treats it as fun. And that’s the secret. Enjoy it.”

Collins, it seems has the same approach. Never one for all the hype and publicity, he snuck beneath the radar last year to take the Commonwealth Games gold medal when all eyes were on “the battle of the Brits” between Chambers and Mark Lewis-Francis. And he did the same this year, seemingly putting himself out of the frame by finishing fourth in his semi and getting a lane one draw in the final.

“It was only good for me to be on lane one,” he said afterwards. “It took a lot of pressure off my chest. Everybody was focusing on the runners in the middle and I could just run my own race.

“You can get too caught up in what’s going on around you, all the attention. The secret is to stay focused and stay relaxed. I can’t get involved in all that hype.”

Campbell, too, seems to have a healthy perspective. An Olympic silver medallist at 200m, and former European 100m champion, he’s often been the forgotten man of sprinting, the “other Brit” in the race. Yet, as far as he and his coach are concerned, that doesn’t matter anymore. “I think I’ve proved enough to everybody else,” says Campbell. “It’s now time to prove something to myself. That’s all I try to do everyday. When I go back home at night I sleep well.”

The product of a poor background and a single-parent family, Campbell talks of how he has “battled since I was a little kid to get to where I am today”. He says the most important thing in his life is to pass on the right lessons to his son, and he talks about this mother, Marva, who brought him up, how yesterday’s medal was for her.

“She’s been my inspiration,” he says. “Without her I couldn’t have done it. She always tried to help me achieve my dreams. And every time I step out on that track, hopefully, I go a little bit further to realising that. I hope I brought a smile to her face.”

No doubt he did, for he also promised to buy her the house in Florida she’d seen when out there on holiday – if all went well in Paris, that is. So far, it has. And with the 200m to come, who’s to say it won’t get better?

Not that coach Christie will be drawn into any rash predictions, of course. “We’ll wait and see,” he says with a smile. “I can’t predict. That would mean putting pressure on him.”

And as we know, it’s much better that he just has fun.