Gunnell delivers warning

Sunday 20 May 2012

Sponsors, eager for glory by association, have snapped up London's Olympians by the dozen, yet with two months left before the Games commence, the warning has been sounded that it is time to focus on the real rewards on offer this summer.

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Sally Gunnell knows only too well the positives and pitfalls of such courtships. The 400 metres hurdles gold medallist of 1992 had a sedate build-up to Barcelona but left with the phone ringing off the hook. By the following summer, her eye had been taken off the ball. "The only way I could cope was to be somewhere totally different," she recalls. "Not for a long period but enough to focus."

She can understand why competitors are cashing in while they can. "For so many of them, they're not going to ever feel this again unless they win at the Olympics." But she cautions against chasing the quick buck. "It has to be balanced. It has to be worked out. You don't want to be squeezing your training in at the end of the day. And you need to have your rest day for rest."It is a fine line, acknowledges Gunnell, now an ambassador for McCain. Yet she is optimistic that the event that brought her finest hour will also bring British success in London. Both Eilidh Child, who will run for Scotland in today's Loughborough International, and Perri Shakes-Drayton must achieve redemption in the Olympics after failing to reach last year's world championship final. Yet that setback, says the past master, might even have done some good. "You hope they've learned from what they went through and applied what they needed to. Why did it happen? And what would you do differently? They're talented enough that they should get into the final. And once you're there, you never know what could happen." Since a faltering performance in the Olympic Test event this month, Child has returned to basics with Malcolm Arnold. His influence could prove decisive."Malcolm's a great specialist hurdles coach," Gunnell said. "It's been a good decision for Eilidh to go down to Bath. The 400 hurdles is a strange event. It can go wonderfully in one race and disastrously in the next. She just has to make sure she gets it right when it counts."Mark Woods

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Gunnell delivers warning

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