Lee McConnell
Lee McConnell has a relay place assured for the European Championships with Team Great Britain in Helsinki next week and looks a good bet for the team event at London 2012.
But Scotland’s most high-profile athlete in recent years is determined to nail down an individual berth at the Olympics at the AVIVA trials in Birmingham this weekend.
McConnell went to Athens in 2004 and Beijing four years ago and has revealed her ‘gameplan’ was always to try and secure a remarkable hat-trick of appearances at the Games.
Ranked third in Britain at the moment in the women’s 400m, Lee has not run the A standard this year so needs a top two place on Saturday evening to persuade selectors.
‘It is looking reasonably good for me in the relay, because I’m ranked third, but I am definitely not giving up on a place in the individual 400m,’ she said.
‘I want to run the individual event and the 4×400 relay. It’s competitive. But I really do want an individual spot.
‘It makes it a good trials. Other girls are all running pretty quick times this year, so yeah it’s going to be a real competitive Olympic trials this year.
‘When I started, it was always the plan to make three Olympics. At the time I didn’t know that the last one would be London, a home Games with a home crowd, making it more special.
‘It’s very exciting that my last Olympics could be in London. But I never saw it as a big challenge – I always believed I would make it to three Olympics.
‘That was what I thought after the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, when I aimed for three Olympics.
‘I could potentially have made four if I’d been better in Sydney – if I had been a better high jumper! So, age wise, I think I could have made four. But talent wise, I’m not sure!
‘I don’t think I’ll manage Rio in 2016. I think that would probably need to be another change of sport – and I don’t think I’m quite up for that.’
Lee, of course, has been on the Team GB scene for a while and seems like a fixture but she was quick to stress there are no guarantees.
For those who do come through the fire of the trials, however, she feels a truly special experience awaits in London.
‘The trials come first and if you don’t do well there then you won’t get to London,’ she said.
‘It sounds so harsh but that is sport. For those who do make it this time around I think the British home crowd will be absolutely brilliant.
‘I am often asked about what benefit you can gain from competing in front of a home crowd. It is a big factor. I kind of relate it to football, where you’ve got that home advantage. Everyone knows how much a home crowd can spur on a team.
‘That’s exactly the same. I’ve seen it in athletics time and again – the host nation’s athletes deliver medals that they might not have been expected to win.
‘A lot of that is to do with the crowd and them giving you that extra adrenaline, which is turned into energy.
‘It’s all energy, at the end of the day, and that gives you the little bit more fight sometimes in those finishing few metres.
‘It has been a long wait for these Games. It feels like ages since they were announced. It’s funny that it’s now so close but, to me, it still feels that bit further away because obviously we’ve not been selected yet.
‘I’ve got a really big challenge on my hands at the weekend – I need to deliver there if I’m going to make it to the Olympics. So it’s still a little bit distant to me yet.
‘I think there is even more pressure in the trials. You can’t run in London if you don’t perform well in the trials, so pressure is definitely on for this weekend.
‘For any British athlete, the pressure is on. We are all desperate to compete in London – and the first step is finishing in the top two at the trials this weekend.’
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