OVER nine days in Yokohama, Zoey Clark has not only discovered the unique charms of Japan, but it has given her an insight into what the country will offer when the Olympic Games come to town next year.
A swift bullet train ride from Tokyo, Yokohama is hosting this weekend’s IAAF World Relays and Clark will be bidding to add to her collection of international medals in the 4x400 metres with the biennial showpiece offering both prestige and the perk of pre-qualification for this autumn’s world championships in Doha.
While a training camp has honed baton passing, most valuable of all has been an away day to the nearby capital to get a glimpse of what it might be like in 14 months’ time.
“We sampled the food, saw a temple, but not too much,” the Aberdonian said. “We’ve had a little more opportunity to get a feel for the place.
“And it was obviously very exciting because you can see where everything is. We had a little tour around the Athletes Village for next year and it was exciting to see that. It gives you a motivation and a drive to try and make that team and be back here in over a year’s time.
“The village is still being constructed but the main building is almost there. It’s three high-rises where the athletes’ accommodation is going to be. Normally, you’d expect with an Olympics that it would be last minute but I think this will be done well in time.”
The relay squads, overseen in his duel role by Scottish Athletics supremo Stephen Maguire, are set to break new ground with today’s heats formally introducing the mixed 4x400 relay for the first time.
“It’s been a bit weird,” said Clark, as two habitually-successful squads have been brought together in
addition to their separate single-sex outings. Yet – bar the injured Eilidh Doyle and the absent Dina Asher-Smith – the overseas sojourn has afforded Maguire a rare opportunity to focus minds on collective enhancement.
“It’s really good,” Clark said. “Because we all train in different parts of the country and [here] we really train together. So you get the chance to get to know each other and do all the technical sessions they want us to do. And now that there’s also a mixed relay, that’s changed things drastically so we’ve had to practice that.”
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