The weekend starting Friday 12th July was unlike many others, I have been on a roller-coaster of emotions from the previous day, my son was participating at the U23 European athletics championship in Finland and as luck would have it, the whole event was being streamed live on the European Athletics website.
The first 100m heat took place mid morning and he did reasonably well, he won the heat and I was confident that he would do well in the semi, however, by the time the semi came round about 4:30pm UK time, I was a bag of nerves, again he won the semi with a PB (Personal best), needless to say I was elated, I was on a high, my son is making waves on a bigger stage, this is what I have longed for ever since he was 10 and had chosen athletics over football
The previous week, I had decided that there is more to life than money, I planned to take Friday 12th off from work to attend my friend’s daughter’s graduation ceremony, but I wasn’t going to leave without my laptop, whilst everyone was in the auditorium where the graduation ceremony was being held, I opted to watch it via video link and watch my son participate in the 100m final on my laptop simultaneously.
My son won the silver medal and I was overjoyed, to me it was an equivalent of an Olympics gold medal, I know that is a long way off, but it didn’t deter the spring I now feel in every step I take and by Saturday I was still basking in the euphoria of the previous day’s achievement, a grin as wide as a slice of watermelon on my face.
Sunday brought more joy, the team won the gold in 4X100m relay, but the joy was dampened when his compatriots who competed at the World Trials in Birmingham all came up with PB’s, they all broke the 10.20 seconds barrier
By the evening the news got progressively worse, Tyson Gay had announced that he failed a drugs test in an out of competition test in May, the rumour mill has gone into overdrive, and there is a possibility that up to 5 Jamaican athletes might have failed a drugs test too..
What an anti-climax, to have gone from such a massive high of the last 2 days to a below the earth low of the drama now unfolding.
We didn’t have too long to wait before we were told that Asafa Powell is one of the Jamaican athletes who has failed a drug test, pandemonium descended on the world of athletics, there was disbelief in many quarters , I felt like I had just had 10 rounds of boxing with Amir Khan and I had been thoroughly and deservedly battered.
These are 2 of the most loved and respected athletes, how could this have happened, in all honesty, I wished it was a bad dream and I will soon wake up from it, but sadly it was true, I vigorously searched through social website and news channels like an addict desperate for a fix to acquaint myself with as much facts or maybe fictions, anything that will confirm that someone somewhere made a terrible mistake, but all the news confirmed what I already knew.
For days after, I was still in disbelief but the shock was gradually wearing off, between me and my husband, we had ferocious debates on whether it was a genuine mistake or they were actually drug cheats, part of me refused to belief the later.
When a star comes crashing to the ground a void is left in the sky. A lot of people are left with an empty feeling, a void and confusion that may take time to put right, If I being an adult can feel this empty, I wonder what is going through the minds of young athletes who looked up to these guys as a role model, one they wish to emulate.
How do you convince a 10 year old taking up athletics for the first time, that his natural gift and hard work can take him to the top, how do I start this conversation with my son, we have to talk about this, we cannot pretend it didn’t happen, we must talk about it.
Opening our conversation with one of my age old mantra, “it’s alright to be different” we had a heart to heart about the events of the weekend and yes, it is possible to get to the top through hard work using your God given gift, you really don’t need to cut corners and cheats do get found out eventually.
To my relief, he was not so cut up with the whole saga like I was and once again my belief in hard work and my fantasy with athletics is restored and to crown it all, he was selected as a member of the relay team to compete in the upcoming World Athletics championship in Moscow.
Happy days!