Harry Aikines-Aryeetey

DOB: 29/8/88 Event: 100m 4x100m relay Medals: 1 bronze (World Champs) Flag: GBR

Giant sprinter Harry Aikines-Aryeetey is a former world Junior and Youth champion who hopes to translate that form into the senior ranks in time to star in London 2012. Growing up in Sutton in south west London, Aikines-Aryeetey will truly be a home favourite if he finds himself running in the London 2012 Olympics. Despite an early interest in playing football, he found his way into athletics after friends noticed how quickly he ran whilst being chased by a dog, and he joined Sutton & District AC at the age of ten. Aikines-Aryeetey, or 'Harry AA' as he likes to be known, was a talented junior and burst onto the scene by becoming the first athlete to win the 100m and 200m titles at the World Youth Championships in 2005. His double efforts led to him becoming the IAAF Rising Star of the Year and he continued his development at the World Junior Championships in Beijing, where he ran away with the 100m gold medal with a season's best of 10.37secs. After also picking up bronze in Beijing, but things were then expected of the Londoner before injury struck in a big way in 2007 and he spent 11 months on the sidelines due to back problems which proved to be a major setback in his development. The powerfully-built sprinter bounced back into action with a personal best in the 60m in France in 2008, and in 2009 he made the Great Britain 4x100m relay team, which picked up a bronze in the World Championships in Berlin. Injury struck again in 2010 which forced him out of the World Indoor Championships, but never one to be beaten he battled back to some kind of form and duly won the UK Championships in Birmingham to qualify for the 2011 World Championships in Daegu.