Mark Lewis-Francis believes a home crowd can inspire him to reach the Olympic 100 metres final.
Lewis-Francis hopeful of making 100m final
British sprinter Mark Lewis-Francis believes a home crowd can inspire him to break the 10-second barrier and reach the Olympic 100 metres final.
The 29-year-old already has an Olympic gold medal following his success as part of the men's 4x100m relay team in Athens eight years ago.
He won the 60m at the indoor Aviva International meeting in Glasgow on Saturday but has struggled with injuries and lacked consistency in recent seasons, rather than push on to join the ranks of the world-class sprinters.
Lewis-Francis clocked 9.97 seconds at the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton, when a faulty wind-gauge meant his time could not officially count as a personal best, and he matched that time in Sheffield a year later but it was wind-assisted.
Achievement
His personal best in legal conditions is 10.04 seconds, and he knows it could take a better time than that to win through the rounds to reach the Olympic final.
He said: "Every day for the last four years I have been thinking about making this Olympic final and just being a part of it.
"It would be a great achievement if I could do that because the 100m is one of the highlights of the Olympics and everyone wants to watch it. Athletes like me want to be in that final and the aim for me is to stay focused and keep my mind on reaching that final.
"I competed in Athens in 2004 and it was an amazing experience but competing in the London Olympics with a home crowd will definitely help you raise your game and achieve targets that would otherwise be unachievable."
Lewis-Francis' Olympic future was thrown into doubt in 2005 when he tested positive for cannabis following the European Indoor Championships but he was cleared to feature in future Games when UK Athletics accepted the drug had not been taken to enhance his performance.
He is all too aware that he needs to find an improvement in his performance to realise his Olympic dream.
"It is always going to be tough," he said.
Secure
"I've always said you have to run sub-10 seconds to reach the final in the Olympics and that is a time I have not run in a long time but hopefully, fingers crossed, with the training I've been doing I can reach that time soon."
There will be plenty of races for Lewis-Francis between now and the Olympics, and he still has to qualify through the British team trials in June.
He would rather be unsure of his Olympic berth than already know his position in Team GB was secure.
"Thinking about the Olympics Games right now adds a lot of pressure, so what I try to do now is get the indoor season out of the way and then go to a warm-weather camp before starting to think about reaching the Olympics," Lewis-Francis said.
"You are never safe. I would rather find out later rather than sooner because anything can happen. I'm an athlete that has had loads of injury problems and if I knew I'd made the team and then got hurt it would be devastating. I would rather prepare myself in the right way and make the team as late as possible."
