IT HAS, at times, felt like a journey back from the edge of an abyss but Andrew Lemoncello will finally take the initial tentative steps on the road to Rio by making his marathon comeback in Las Vegas tomorrow. The 33-year-old Fifer has only completed 19 races in four years since a flurry of injuries began ahead of London 2012, one step forward seemingly destined to see two steps of regression follow suit.
Now based amid the canyons of Arizona and dividing his time between training and an online coaching concern, he confesses the moment has not yet arrived to place his cards on the table. Chasing the Olympic qualifying time of 2 hours and 12 minutes before April’s deadline will require the accumulation of greater reserves.
“This is just a training run,” he said. “I’m doing it as a long tempo, basically because it's close by where I live. I haven't started the marathon training yet so it's a test run to see where my fitness is after taking a month off. I'll be going for my qualifying time in Houston in January.”
It is seven years since Lemoncello savoured an Olympic debut in Beijing as a steeplechaser before switching events in an attempt to achieve greater gains. A father of two, he has long dropped off the funding map but remains enthused about the chase to Brazil. Yet his recent absence was but one more illustration that he remains at the behest of his body.
“I twisted my foot and injured my Achilles and that's why I didn't run in Berlin,” he revealed. “But Houston’s fast. It's where all the USA guys go to run half-marathon personal bests. I paced my training partner there in 2010 to a 2.10 so he's returning the favour.”
Meanwhile, Greg Rutherford and Jessica Ennis-Hill have been named as UK Athletes of the Year in the wake of landing world championship gold in Beijing in August. Ennis-Hill, who made a stunning return to action from the birth of her first child, takes the prize for the fifth time while long-jump champion Rutherford retained the prize awarded annually by the British Athletics Writers Association.
Steph Twell – who will form part of a Scotland team at tomorrow’s Leeds Dash – claimed the Inspiration Award at the ceremony in London in tribute to her comeback from long-term injury while Kyle Langford and Morgan Lake took the Young Athlete of the Year honours.
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