KELLY HOLMES revealed yesterday that it was her former coach, the one who had guided her through most of her career rather than the one she shares now with Maria Mutola, who convinced her to chase an Olympic double. It may not have been apparent from her assured performances on the track here, but Holmes had been treading a path of uncertainty until three days before she ran her first race.
Not until the Tuesday, before the opening round of the 800 metres on Friday, did Holmes have the information she needed that would direct her towards her journey into history. It was a training session of two 400 metres runs, with ten minutes recovery between, which mapped out her course towards becoming the first British athlete since Albert Hill in 1920 to complete an Olympic double.
For two years, Holmes has been coached by Margo Jennings, who has trained Mutola, the world’s dominant 800 metres runner of recent times. Last summer, at the World Championships in Paris, Mutola won, with Holmes second, but, after the Mozambican suffered a hamstring injury this summer, the gap between them closed leading up to the Olympics.
Jennings, whose first loyalties are to Mutola, was in an invidious position when Holmes was deciding whether to tackle the 800 metres. They had been training together in Johannesburg in May but, as the Games drew closer, Holmes went to Madrid to prepare while Mutola chose St Moritz. So it was to Dave Arnold, Holmes’s coach in her schooldays and for most of her professional career, that she turned for critical guidance.
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After beating her best time for 400 metres twice in quick succession, but still undecided over whether to run the 800 metres, Holmes texted Arnold. Holmes explained: “I had spoken to the coach (Jennings) on the Sunday and said, ‘Give me something that will make me decide either way.’ I did not tell her what I had done. By that time we were in two camps and I was a rival to Maria.
“It was hard for my coach to split her loyalties and I understood that. She has been with Maria for 14 years. But I needed it drummed into me that I was in the fittest shape of my life. I got that from my old coach. He had known me for so long and I knew that if I told him the sessions I was doing, he would give me an honest opinion. After the 400s, he said, ‘You have to go for it’ — that was the final vote of confidence.”
Aged 34, Holmes’s career has been characterised as much by her injuries as by the medals she has won and she was now in a rare position. “For the first time in seven years I was having to make my own decisions about racing, rather than having them forced upon me by injuries,” she said.
After all the long years of anxiety, Holmes is looking forward to enjoying the short time she has left. “I so desperately wanted to get it right that the races were not enjoyable because I was putting myself under so much pressure to perform,” she said. “I am not planning on retiring yet and I would like just to enjoy the athletics now. I have had so many highs, but the lows probably outweigh the highs.”
Holmes cannot wait to get started on her happy tour. There will be a few days’ celebration at home in Kent before she races in Rieti, Italy, Berlin and Monte Carlo, finishing the season off with a domestic appearance over a mile in conjunction with the Great North Run in Newcastle. Drinking it all in may take some time. “It feels like somebody else in my body has done it, not me,” she said.
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While Holmes can expect to become a millionaire, it was different for Hill after he completed his 800/1,500 metres double. He went back to work as a ticket collector on the railways. Not that he ran as fast as Holmes, who broke her British record, set in 1997, recording 3min 57.90sec (Hill recorded 4:01.8). “If you had told me I’d have had to run that fast to win a medal, I would not have turned up,” Holmes said.
The mooted Russia team effort to beat Holmes came to nothing. Quite the reverse, in fact, as Natalya Yevdokimova set fast from the gun and ran the sprint out of Tatyana Tomashova, who had run a 29.7sec last 200 metres to win the world title last year. Yevdokimova’s front-running enabled Holmes to settle near the back of the field, as has become her custom, and pick off her prey.
Holmes returns to Britain a homeless heroine. She has rented out her house, so she will probably be going back to Mum’s. Or perhaps she will just stay on the bus, on which an open-top homecoming is planned. “It’s going to be amazing,” Holmes said. “People have seen me running around Tonbridge and Hildenborough since I was 12 years old. Riding in a bus with people cheering me is going to be so bizarre.” But thoroughly deserved.
KELLY HOLMES: HIGHS AND LOWS
1992: Former English Schools 1,500 champion, she returns to athletics after breaking off to pursue career in Army
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1994: Wins Commonwealth Games 1,500, second in European 1,500
1995: British 800 record, third at 800 in World Championships, second at 1,500
1996: Breaks British 1,500 record, suffers stress fracture, finishes fourth at 800 and eleventh at 1,500 in Olympics
1997: Leads world by 5sec over 1,500 but tears Achilles tendon and limps off track in World Championships
1998: Second in Commonwealth Games 1,500
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1999: Eliminated in semi-finals of 800 at World Championships
2000: Wins her first Olympic medal, bronze at 800, having begun the season with surgery to a calf; seventh in Olympic 1,500
2001: Viral illness holds her back; she finishes sixth at 800 in World Championships
2002: Regains Commonwealth 1,500 title, finishes third at 800 in European Championships
2003: Tries indoor racing, breaks 15-year-old British 800 record then British 1,500 record while taking silver medal at World Indoor Championships. Denied gold by Regina Jacobs, who was subsequently banned for a doping offence. Finishes second at 800 in World Championships
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2004: Sets European indoor 1,000 metres record but falls in final of 1,500 at World Indoor Championships; wins gold at 800 and 1,500 at Olympics, setting British record at 1,500