Sprinter James Ellington targets April comeback after crash
Thursday 13 July 2017 12:14, UK
Sprinter James Ellington is targeting a comeback at the Commonwealth Games in April following a career-threatening motorbike crash earlier this year.
The 31-year-old double Olympian will miss the entire 2017 season after a serious road accident with fellow British sprinter Nigel Levine while the pair were on a training camp in Tenerife in January.
Ellington broke his pelvis and both legs when the motorbike he was travelling on with Levine was hit by a car driven around a bend on the wrong side of the road.
He was a member of Great Britain's gold medal-winning 4x100m relay teams at the 2014 and 2016 European Championships and now hopes to compete in the same event in Berlin next August, as well as the Worlds in Doha in 2019. But before that, Ellington believes he could make the Commonwealth Games in Australia in April.
"It gives me another target to aim for," he said. "You have to aim high if you want to achieve something. Even getting out of the wheelchair early, getting off the crutches early, I'm way ahead of where they originally thought I would be.
"Personally I think I'm going to be back next year. The doctors and surgeons said I'd never be able to run again.
"From the very beginning, I told the doctors and surgeons that my goals were to come back. They looked at me a bit dubious like 'I don't know about that'. But I've proved them wrong so far so now they're starting to believe me."
