CHRIS RAWLINSON

©Press Association

WEEK 3
Date: August 11

Hints from Hemery help to hone my skills

After the ups and downs of the last couple of weeks, the main goal has been to get back to some sort of stability in my racing - this was hopefully going to start at Crystal Palace.

Training had gone well in the week leading up to on Friday August 3, the day I was off to face the world No 1, Angelo Taylor, at Crystal Palace. The evening before the competition was spent with teammate Ben Challenger watching films on the TV and just chilling out.

On the day of the competition I felt confident and fit, and with the aid of the new Nike swift suit, I was looking to attack the British record. The race was just as I had planned it for the first 300 metres - then bang! I messed up my stride pattern to the penultimate hurdle, and if there's one thing I've learnt at this level, it is that you can't make mistakes like that.

Well, that was that. I went from being ready to run a British record to nursing a mediocre time all because of one error: it's not a forgiving event.

Afterwards, I spent some time talking to David Hemery, yes the one and only. He was Olympic champion in 1968. He impressed me from the moment I met him. I could tell that he really watched my race and had thought about how he could help me by passing on his experience.

He identified an area of the race that Nick - my coach - and I have been trying to sort out and gave me ideas as to how this problem could be rectified. We carried on talking for about ten minutes and I got some great hints for my training programme and on methods to improve my race.

I tried one of them on Monday this week. David told me that one of the most important things to do in a race is concentrate on specific phases, predominantly the last 120 metres - the stretch in which everything had gone wrong at the Palace. He had worked with other internationals, including Sally Gunnell, using mental rehearsal, with much success, and he felt this would benefit me greatly. Who am I to argue?

I've started to work on his suggestions. This week, I ran sets of 300 metre hurdles "pre-stressing" them with 150-metre efforts to make them longer and tougher, with more to think about. The main idea of the session was to visualise each run before putting it into action.

By the end of the session I had run a personal best time over the distance using David's suggested technique. Many thanks to an Olympic champion from one who yet dreams of such achievement.

I will put the technique to the test over weekend at the Olympic trials. I can already feel my stomach churning - the trials take me one stride closer to my destiny, and many athletes will emerge from the weekend in the knowledge that they will have to live with the hunger that I have lived with over the past four years until the next Games.

Read Chris's diary for WEEK 1 ...

Read Chris's diary for WEEK 2 ...

Read Chris's diary for WEEK 4 ...

Read Chris's diary for WEEK 5 ...