FROM ZEROS TO HEROES - MARLON DEVONISH It was one of the greatest stories of the 2004 Olympics: Britain’s relay write-offs, none of whom had qualified for the final of the individual 100 m or 200 m, against America’s invincibles in the 4 x 100 m final! No one gave Britain, or any other country, a chance. The Americans had won the Olympic sprint relay gold medal 15 times and had only been beaten once when they had completed the event. The star-spangled quartet that lined up in front of 77,000 spectators in Athens was arguably the best of all time: Justin Gatlin had just won the individual 100 m, Shawn Crawford had taken gold in the 200 m, Maurice Greene had won gold four years earlier in the 100 m and Coby Miller was a sub-10 second man in scintillating form. Britain had last won the event in 1912 and had dropped the baton at the previous two games in Atlanta and Sydney. Nothing in the individual sprints had suggested they could put things right this time, so the 38.07 seconds it took Jason Gardener, Darren Campbell, Marlon Devonish and Mark Lewis-Francis to scorch around the track were sporting theatre at its best. The Brit pack’s golden moment was made all the more remarkable by the margin of victory, which was just 0.01 seconds. “If any one of us had started a fraction later or if just one of the changeovers had been the tiniest bit out we wouldn’t have done it,” says Devonish. Months later, discussing his training and THAT Greek night, he still shakes his head in disbelief at the memory. “I can sit here for hours and try to explain how it felt when we won,” he says. “The best I can do is say that it felt like my body exploded into a million pieces then came back together again. It was the best experience of my life.” Devonish had been a member of the British 4 x 100 m team that dropped the baton at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and was part of the team that won silver at the 2003 World Championships only to have to give it back when anchor man Dwain Chambers failed a drug test. Chambers’ subsequent ban meant previous performances were erased from the record books, which meant Britain only just qualified for Athens as a top 16-ranked nation. The team’s lowly ranking meant they had to run in lane one, the worst lane of all, in the semi-final knowing only four teams would qualify for the final the next day. “We had the top five countries in the world in our race but we managed to finish second to the Americans,” says Devonish. “Our changeovers were appalling. There was even talk that mine and Mark’s changeover was borderline disqualification but we dismissed that. We were very confident that once we got things right we would be a threat and we knew the Americans didn’t think we were. Not one of us didn’t believe in the other.” The day of the final was unbearably tense: the team tried to relax while knowing that evening they would take part in the biggest race of their lives, in front of a full stadium and a live TV audience of billions. “When I go on the track I always get nervous,” admits Devonish. “Being the Olympics made it really difficult. I try to stay as cool and calm as possible until I get on the track because it’s important to have that nervous energy once you go out there. Once I’m out there I try to be nervous but confident because it’s important not to let the nerves overwhelm you.” When the teams walked out, Devonish, who was on the third leg, went through his usual ritual of measuring 28 steps to know where to put down some red tape to mark the exact spot where he should start running as Campbell, the second athlete, approached. Changeovers take place in a 30 m acceleration zone but if an athlete receives the baton in the first 10 m his team is instantly disqualified. The idea is for the receiver to hit full throttle as soon after 10 m as possible and take the baton at full pelt. The gun sounded and the stadium erupted. “Once the race started I wasn’t watching how the athletes were running, I was only looking at the changeovers,” he recalls. “Once I saw the first one my heart was pumping. The crowd was cheering but I didn’t hear them much because I was just focusing on my tape.” Devonish was so focused on his mark he didn’t have the opportunity to watch the race unfold. If he had he would have noticed the Americans struggling in the changeover with Gatlin treading on the back of Miller’s shoe and Britain going very smoothly indeed. “All I can remember is seeing the aggression in Darren’s face as he clawed down the track and thinking that as soon as he hit my mark I had to drive out as hard as I could,” he says. Batons are not so much handed over as thumped into colleagues’ hands. “You whack it so hard it really stings, which instinctively makes the hand clutch it and the pain also gives you an energy surge,” says Devonish. Everyone expected the Americans to be metres clear by the time Devonish set off on the third leg but the race was wide open. Running in lane 3, his job was to take out as many athletes on the stagger outside him, which included the Americans. But contrary to every prediction, they were not miles ahead. “I remember thinking ‘where are the Americans?’” he says. “But it all happened so fast I didn’t think too much about it. All I can remember is focusing on Mark.” A superb final changeover left Lewis-Francis a metre-and-a-half clear of the United States. Gold was begging! But the Americans had their bogeyman, Greene, on the last leg. Greene had run down Chambers from a similar position a year earlier at the World Championships and once again he began eating up the ground on Lewis-Francis. “Greene had just come off running 9.87 seconds and for a split second I thought the same thing was going to happen again but then for some reason I then thought ‘no it won’t’,” says Devonish. Devonish started going crazy long before it was certain Britain had won. “I was celebrating a metre before Mark went over the line,” he says. “From where I was standing I thought he had won by a bigger margin. I had no idea he’d won by 0.01 seconds. We all believed we could win but when it actually happens it’s a completely different experience to anything you expected. You don’t know what to do with yourself. I was excited deep down to the core of my being. “I’ve been in athletics for 12 years and I’d always dreamed of winning the Olympic gold medal. It’s the highest accolade for an athlete. So, to achieve it against the odds is remarkable. It’s the ultimate dream come true. If I could have wished for anything it would have been to become Olympic champion. “The Americans tried to shake our hands but we were celebrating too much. We went on a lap of honour and that’s when I noticed the sea of British flags. You can imagine what the atmosphere would be like if London gets the Games in 2012.” Afterwards there was only one thing to do - go ballistic. “After all the interviews we got back to the village at 2am,” says Devonish. “Me and Mark Lewis-Francis couldn’t get to sleep and by 3.30am we were partying in a club and drinking too much. We had a press conference the next day at 8am. We left the club at 7am and the taxi back to the village took half an hour so we had a bath and went straight to it. The next night we did the same thing again.” SPRINTING FITNESS A sprinter needs natural talent, controlled power and technique. Devonish showed he had plenty of the first attribute when he first visited his local athletics club, Coventry Godiva Harriers, just after his 16th birthday. “ I did a race at the end of my first season just as a benchmark and when I looked in Athletics Weekly I was ranked in the top half for my age group,” he recalls. “I thought whoa… I’m in the top half and I’ve only just started!” The next 12 years leading up to his Olympic glory were about harnessing this God-given talent with power and technique. Sprinters have highly specific goals and the training is tailored to achieve them. “The ideal sprinter is as strong and as light as he can be,” he says. Weight training is therefore an essential part of his armoury: but it has to be done the right way. “I used to do a little bit of light stuff when I was a kid,” he says. “I remember going to a bodybuilding show with my cousins. They are all in shape and they influenced me to look good. At 18 or 19 I started getting serious and tried to push as heavy weights as possible.” His gym regime has refined since then. “It’s easy to put on weight and be bigger,” he says. “But it means extra weight to control when you are running. Now I do a lot of sport-specific lifting to make my core stability stronger.” Core strength comes to the fore in the final 40 m of a 100 m race when deceleration sets in and athletes begin to lose their form. “The stronger your muscles are the better you hold your position,” he explains. “You can’t have a floppy midsection. If you lack strength here you suffer a sponge effect, which means your centre is soft so when you plant your feet your body gives way slightly and you waste energy. It’s like a car with no suspension.” Because the emphasis is so heavily on core work, Devonish’s gym sessions concentrate on his legs and torso and pay little attention to more showy body parts like arms. And because he is training for explosive power he focuses solely on cultivating this through lifts such as cleans and jerks instead of doing a standard muscle-building programme. “ I do weights two times a week,” he says. “Cleans are massively important for helping athletes explode out of their blocks. “Jerks are very good for the obliques and core stability.” The exercises are performed at speed to build explosive power. “Power cleans are possibly the most important exercise for me,” he says. “The idea is to move the bar as quick as you can and be as explosive as you can. It works all the muscles in the body. This year more than most I’ve been working hard on my core stability and everything I do is aimed at strengthening it.” Devonish has been going back to basics because his last two summer seasons, Olympic glory aside, have been jeopardised by injury. UK Athletics’ unforgiving qualification criteria for major championships means he has to finish in the top two of the 100 m or 200 m at the national trials to be certain of qualifying for events like this year’s World Championships. That’s tough on the body because it requires peaking twice a season. “On an individual basis I have not done as well as I could have done because of my injuries so I want to get stronger to avoid that happening,” he says. He spent the winter breaking down each exercise in the gym to ensure he was getting the basics right. “I do different sections of each lift to make sure I get the technical aspects right,” he says. “I’ve also been doing a lot of weight training, such as bench presses, on a Swiss Ball to improve my core stability. It’s good because you have to hold your glutes tight when you lift the bar.” Devonish tends to do his cleans and jerks in four sets of six reps. “I really concentrate on the technique,” he says. “Later in the season I might move on to heavier weights.” For Swiss Ball exercises he does four sets of 10. Thursdays are particularly gruelling because they incorporate all aspects of his training, including weights, dynamic resistance work such as running with a sled strapped around his waist and sprints with short recovery intervals. He spends three weeks in South Africa every January for warm weather training and tries to sneak in another pre-season trip to Cyprus in April to get in tip-top shape at a time when the UK climate can ruin track sessions. Devonish, who in his spare time relaxes by painting, was due to spend some time early in 2005 filming Superstars for the BBC. It could prove embarrassing: although he’s a gold standard sprinter, he’s a lousy distance runner. “The furthest I’ve run is 500 m,” he says. Seeing the runner beaten in a running race is bound to raise a chuckle. But the Olympic gold medal that is tucked away in his top drawer at home means Devonish can rest in the know-ledge that he will always have the last laugh on his opponents. M&F