{"id":91,"date":"2012-06-20T11:24:34","date_gmt":"2012-06-20T11:24:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.uk\/scotland\/?p=91"},"modified":"2012-06-20T11:24:34","modified_gmt":"2012-06-20T11:24:34","slug":"mcconnell-seeks-solo-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.uk\/scotland\/news\/mcconnell-seeks-solo-spot","title":{"rendered":"McConnell seeks solo spot"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lee<\/a>

Lee McConnell<\/p><\/div>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But Scotland\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

McConnell went to Athens in 2004 and Beijing four years ago and has revealed her \u2018gameplan\u2019 was always to try and secure a remarkable hat-trick of appearances at the Games.<\/p>\n

Ranked third in Britain at the moment in the women\u2019s 400m, Lee has not run the A standard this year so needs a top two place on Saturday evening to persuade selectors.<\/p>\n

\u2018It is looking reasonably good for me in the relay, because I\u2019m ranked third, but I am definitely not giving up on a place in the individual 400m,\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n

\u2018I want to run the individual event and the 4×400 relay. It\u2019s competitive.\u00a0 But I really do want an individual spot.<\/p>\n

\u2018It makes it a good trials.\u00a0 Other girls are all running pretty quick times this year, so yeah it\u2019s going to be a real competitive Olympic trials this year.<\/p>\n

\u2018When I started, it was always the plan to make three Olympics.\u00a0 At the time I didn\u2019t know that the last one would be London, a home Games with a home crowd, making it more special.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s very exciting that my last Olympics could be in London. But I never saw it as a big challenge \u2013 I always believed I would make it to three Olympics.<\/p>\n

\u2018That was what I thought after the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, when I aimed for three Olympics.<\/p>\n

\u2018I could potentially have made four if I\u2019d been better in Sydney \u2013 if I had been a better high jumper! So, age wise, I think I could have made four.\u00a0 But talent wise, I\u2019m not sure!<\/p>\n

\u2018I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll manage Rio in 2016. I think that would probably need to be another change of sport \u2013 and I don\u2019t think I\u2019m quite up for that.\u2019<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

For those who do come through the fire of the trials, however, she feels a truly special experience awaits in London.<\/p>\n

\u2018The trials come first and if you don\u2019t do well there then you won\u2019t get to London,\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n

\u2018It 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.<\/p>\n

\u2018I am often asked about what benefit you can gain from competing in front of a home crowd.\u00a0 It is a big factor. I kind of relate it to football, where you\u2019ve got that home advantage.\u00a0 Everyone knows how much a home crowd can spur on a team.<\/p>\n

\u2018That\u2019s exactly the same.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen it in athletics time and again \u2013 the host nation\u2019s athletes deliver medals that they might not have been expected to win.<\/p>\n

\u2018A lot of that is to do with the crowd and them giving you that extra adrenaline, which is turned into energy.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s all energy, at the end of the day, and that gives you the little bit more fight sometimes in those finishing few metres.<\/p>\n

\u2018It has been a long wait for these Games.\u00a0 It feels like ages since they were announced. It\u2019s funny that it\u2019s now so close but, to me, it still feels that bit further away because obviously we\u2019ve not been selected yet.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019ve got a really big challenge on my hands at the weekend \u2013 I need to deliver there if I\u2019m going to make it to the Olympics. So it\u2019s still a little bit distant to me yet.<\/p>\n

\u2018I think there is even more pressure in the trials.\u00a0 You can\u2019t run in London if you don\u2019t perform well in the trials, so pressure is definitely on for this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u2018For any British athlete, the pressure is on.\u00a0 We are all desperate to compete in London \u2013 and the first step is finishing in the top two at the trials this weekend.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":92,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1,8],"tags":[36,5,61,62],"class_list":["post-91","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","category-track","tag-36","tag-lee-mcconnell","tag-london","tag-olympic-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.uk\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.uk\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.uk\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.uk\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.uk\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.uk\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.uk\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions\/95"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.uk\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.uk\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.uk\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.uk\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}