, the official starting line for
Britain's Olympic ambitions
Chris Turner for the IAAF
11 May 2000 - On Sunday May 21st, Loughborough University's athletics stadium will once again play host to the Loughborough International Match, the traditional curtain raiser of the British outdoor athletics season.
In year's gone by, this was a fixture played out between a Loughborough University Team, past and present, and a team from the AAA's but the meeting has now been incorporated into UK Athletics' series of development meetings - this year appropriately entitled "the Road to Sydney".
In London today, ex-Lougborough student, Sebastian Coe OBE, now more correctly entitled Lord Coe, as he was recently honoured with a peerage, took time out from his busy political schedule to look ahead to the match, which sees Loughborough's students take on team's from England, Scotland, GB Students and the cream of Britain's emerging junior talent.
"Loughborough holds a special place in my affections and I will never forget my student days there....This season the match will assume extra significance as many of Britain's leading athletes choose Lougborough as the first stop on the long road to Olympic glory in Sydney" commented Coe, the 1980 & 84 Olympic 1,500 metres champion.
Certainly, the sprinting line up for the match looks impressive with Darren Campbell, the reigning European 100 metres champion, Christian Malcolm, the newly crowned European Indoor 200 metres champion and Katharine Merry who was fifth in the Seville World Championship 400 metres final, having decided to begin their serious Olympic challenge in Lougborough.
Merry made arguably the biggest breakthrough of any British athlete in 1999 emerging in sensational style to finish fifth in the 400 metres in Seville, in what was her first season at the longest sprint distance. However, Merry will start her Olympic 400 metres campaign by running 200 metres at Loughborough, as she uses the shorter distance to sharpen up. "I'm hoping for good conditions in Loughborough so I can get a fast 200m time under my belt," she said.
European champion, Darren Campbell confirmed he is in a similar frame of mind, "I'm really looking forward to competing in front of a big British crowd at the start of my Olympic campaign".
A big enthusiastic audience was exactly what last year's meeting witnessed, and it was vocal enough to push Britain's number one distance runner Paula Radcliffe to a new British Two mile best performance. A wonderful Loughborough start to what was a memorable summer altogether for Radcliffe, eventually leading to a world championship 10,000 metres silver medal in Seville.
Many of Britain's top athletes will be hoping for a similarly successful start to their Olympic preparations this year in Loughborough and as Sebastian Coe pointed out "with the enthusiastic support of the home crowd and the Olympic Games rapidly approaching, what better time could there be to make that all important breakthrough!"
