17.08.2009

McLellan ready to fire in Berlin

Sharon Hannan, coach of Olympic silver medallist Sally McLellan, previews the action in the final countdown to the heats of the 100m hurdles on day four of the IAAF world titles.

Berlin – August 16, 2009. It’s Sunday afternoon and I’ve quarantined myself in my room most of the day. I have a dry, tickly throat and just want to make sure I don’t pass it around. I’ve gargled the Betadine, sucked on a few Strepsils, chewed some zinc + vitamin C tablets and taken a couple of paracetamol for good measure. I’ve finished my book as well, so a very relaxing day.

Competition started yesterday and the FLAME team management have already had to extinguish some fires. When we returned to our hotel late last night, we found out Brendan Cole (400m hurdles) and Jeff Riseley (1500m) had been disqualified. Riseley’s race had been three hours earlier! (Staff) Sue Hobson, Nathan Sims, Craig Hilliard and others swung into action and several hours later, both had been reinstated. The appeal process was definitely worthwhile on this occasion.

Sally did another PB in the pool on Friday. Her session was three eight-second reps with one minute between the first two and 90 seconds between the last two. Her first rep was an eight-second PB, 30 'strides' on one arm – another promising sign of improved speed.

Yesterday was her last track session. I just wanted her to do a competition warm-up. We had help in the form of 'traffic cop' physio, Liz Molloy. Athletes and coaches just seem oblivious to what’s going on around them mostly, and walk across the track willy-nilly. It’s most dangerous when a hurdler is on their blocks, because someone walking across the track three or four hurdles away just doesn’t see them. So Liz and I tried to control the traffic while Sal did what Sal does best. She was awfully fast, but she thought her technique was bad.

The problem with hurdles is, the faster your speed, the more problems you face technically. It’s not easy to train at your very fastest, but we’ve found that by moving the hurdles in from race distance, this helps. Yesterday there was a nice tail, about 1.3m to 1.4m per second. I moved the hurdles in 1¼ foot lengths as well, so Sally felt them racing at her even faster.  

Sounds funny doesn’t it. I didn’t say Sally raced at the hurdles faster, I said the hurdles raced at Sally. I’ve never raced hurdles (well, maybe once) so everything I know has been learnt from seeing and listening and not from doing. I haven’t felt the fear that athletes feel when suddenly they’re confronted by a barrier that feels closer than ever before. I feel the need to try to manufacture that situation for them, so when they get into a race they can control their step lengths and have a clean race.

Predictably, Sally indicated the last rep felt bad and wanted to do another rep over three hurdles. I argued that it probably felt bad because it was fast, no time for thinking about technique and whether you’re too close to, or too high over, or too far from the hurdle. There were to be no more reps. She needs to feel like she’s jumping out of her skin, ready for action. This is good!

Bring on Tuesday night. There are 42 girls entered, but Jamaica has four girls on the list and the USA has five.  Each country is allowed three competitors, but can nominate more initially to cover themselves in the event of illness or injury. The reigning world champion (in this event it’s Michelle Perry of the USA) gets an automatic entry, so there can be another three from the US.

So when the USA and Jamaica drop one competitor each that will leave 40 which means there will be five heats, three semi-finals and the final. The first four in each heat plus the next four fastest times will advance to the semi-finals. From there only the first two plus the next two fastest times will advance to the finals. The start lists for the heats won’t come out until about 6pm on Monday night.

As soon as we know which heat Sally is in, we’ll know her event starting time and then we’ll be able to finalise her warm-up start time and therefore her departure from the hotel.

The semi’s and finals are on Wednesday night, which is Thursday morning your time.

Sally and Delloreen Ennis-London of Jamaica did a joint press conference at the adidas world champs headquarters at the Radisson Blu Hotel here in Berlin. Delloreen was asked about times and she replied that the fastest times will probably be in the semi's. This is quite likely, with only first and second being automatic qualifiers.

I have to tell you about the Radisson. The lobby has to be seen to be believed. About six metres above your head there’s an aquarium. It’s about six metres in diameter and about 12 metres high. It just hangs above the lobby like water suspended in time. There are hundreds of fish of differing sizes and colours and they use cleaners in full diving gear to keep the tank clean.

I’m sure you’re following the fortunes and misfortunes of the Flame elsewhere on the AA website. The support and camaraderie in camp when athletes return from sessions has to be seen to be appreciated. They rally around each other in the halls, the lobbies and in the rooms. They’re good for each other, as only those who’ve been through the same thing or about to go through the same, can understand.

The four-bed room we occupied for our medical set-up was short-lived. As team after team arrived, space for medical personnel was more and more under pressure.  We now share with any team that needs a bed for an athlete at the time.

Our medical team is working very hard. They are still servicing the athletes at the hotel, those at the training track at Lechtersfelde and the actual competitors at Olympiastadion or at the Brandenburg Gate for the walks or marathons. Two physios, two massage therapists and the doc is all we have, and they’re everywhere! Doing a mighty fine job indeed.

Have you heard the one start rule was passed at the technical conference here this week? All you track coaches will be wanting to familiarise your athletes with the new rule so they don’t get caught out. Australia is usually the first country to introduce the new rules passed at each conference because of the time of year our season is conducted. (Look out Tatum!)

Hopefully I’ll get another report done before the heats.  I hope you’re enjoying each edition.

Cheers from me again.

Sharon

Read previous instalments of Sharon's exclusive online diary here.