People have been trying to worry me with reports about my rivals – I want my rivals to be worried about me
Right now the Olympics is getting close, and you can feel the buzz about it here in Jamaica. I've been running for a while now, and doing well since I was a junior, so people out here know who I am. When I'm out on the streets in Kingston people are always coming up to me and saying "Hey, Gonz, I wanna see you win gold this summer." Nobody likes that kind of pressure but as a runner in Jamaica you have to get used to it because track and field is a real big deal here. The other thing the people will do is tell me what kind of times my rivals LaShawn Merritt and Kirani James have been running. I can't really hide from it, you know? But I just tell myself that my sport is all about what you do on the day. Nothing else matters. All I can do is stay focused on what I have to do and not worry too much about what everyone else is doing or saying.
Except for my coach Bert Cameron, of course. He's driving me real hard, reminding me every day that the Games are getting closer. It is time to get in high gear and start running sharp. We need to be in top shape just to qualify for the Olympics. So everybody down at Racers Track Club is gearing up and getting ready. That goes for Usain Bolt most of all. I think people who don't know him imagine that he's this real laid back character, that he hardly trains at all but just turns up and runs. Trust me, right now that man is working hard. I see it every day.
For Bolt the Olympic trials are going to be crazy. Everybody is talking about whether Usain is still the King of speed, and wondering whether Yohan Blake is going to beat him. The whole island will stop to watch that race. Usain has been talking about running crazy times at the London Olympics, 9.4secs or something. He knows that's what the public wants to hear him say, but he isn't about times, he's about winning. All he is thinking about is crossing that line first. Once he is winning, he's happy. Last year was not such a good one for him. He got hurt and wasn't able to run as fast as he usually runs or win as easy as he usually wins. Then there was that false start at the World Championships. So he is definitely showing more focus in training now. He's hungry.
The showdown between Usain, Yohan and Asafa Powell means that the competition in the 100m at our trials is pretty much up there with the standard you'll see at the Olympics. And it is a similar situation on the girls side as well, you have Shelly-Ann Fraser, Veronica Campbell-Brown, and Kerron Stewart.
I've got things a little easier in the 400m. In fact I want a couple of the younger guys to step it up and start running some fast times so we can get a team together to challenge the USA in the 4x400m. We had a pretty weak squad out at the Penn relays recently, and we didn't finish too far behind a strong US team. I was meant to be running a 200m as well, but the weather was so horrible that my coach told me not to do it. I know you guys in London think you get bad weather, but believe me this was awful. Even the British team there were complaining about it.
It all means that I'm still not too sure where my form is at right now. I'm running this Saturday in the Jamaican Invitational. Because it is at home and people will be paying to see me run, this is the race I am really focused on. It is my first 400m that I really want to run fast in so I can send out a message. Then people can start stopping LaShawn and Kirani in the street and saying to them: "hey, you see that time Gonz ran last weekend?"
SOURCE: UK Guardian
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