Nijel Amos

thumb|Nigel Amos Nigel Amos (born 1995) is a Botswana middle-distance runner who competes in the 800 metres. He won the silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics. Quotes I remember running the 2011 World Youth Championships in France, where I finished fifth in the final. But when I got back home I realised I have to fight the pain. I had gone too far to turn back now. I don’t want to one day look back on my career and have any regrets. I remember later at the Olympics [where Amos won silver behind David Rudisha's world record run] I ran through the pain – I was stretchered off the track – and earned my medal. It had worked. When your mind is fighting your body and telling you to give up you have to be positive and say ‘I am going to do it’. Back at the world youth championships I had failed to control that. My mind was weak. It is important to not panic in race and show patience. At the 2014 Prefontaine Classic Mohammed Aman took off with 250m to go. I kept patient and kicked in the final 100m to win the race. Sometimes I have not been patient, like [the 2014 Diamond League meet] in Stockholm last year. I was leading the race and suddenly all these guys were passing me down the back straight. I finished fifth but I should have gone with the flow of the race more. The Olympic 1500m champion Taoufik Makhloufi came up to me ahead of the Prefontaine Classic meeting last year and said ‘You are the future, but you are the only one who can make changes and take that step to reach your goals. Suddenly a feeling built up in me like I am in charge of my own destiny. From that moment on I have thought I can do this. In the past I had gone into races and not really believed in myself. I had lost the race before it had even started. Words of Wisdom – Nijel Amos,February 4 2015 The Glasgow final was the hardest of my life, I couldn’t sleep the night before because of all the pressure. Everyone was saying: ‘It’s you against Rudisha’. At the Olympics, I was just a young boy and no one expected anything, but in Glasgow I was the big hope. But then I looked in Rudisha’s eyes and thought he is just another athlete and I can beat him. Yesterday when I flew in, I was so happy to come back to the city where I ran my second best time, The track here is so fast and that race was like a repeat of the Olympic final. For me it was very special, When I won the world junior title it was just six months after my grandmother died. I lost my mum when I was three and I never knew my father so I was raised by my grandmother. So I told myself that if I win, I win it for her. Since that day, everything I’ve been winning I’ve been winning for her, not for me. When I got to the Olympics it was the same. I knew Rudisha was in really top shape. In the call room before the race he told us he was going to cross [at 400m] in 49.2. He said to us young guys, ‘If you want to die, follow me. If not, then stay back. So I knew he was going to go fast and I thought if I can just follow him and stay in the race I could finish well. I left high school in 2012, My coach had been my geography teacher but he didn’t have any qualifications (to coach). So I changed coach and moved to South Africa. It was difficult getting used to a new training group and coach. So 2013 was a year for me to find myself again. Watching the World Championships (in Moscow) I thought, I could have been there and done 1:44. That’s easy. So this year I thought I have to move out of my comfort zone. I went to my coach and told him I want to do more. By 12 I already had a wide open mind. I wanted to chase my dreams and that made me grow up strong. I already knew no one was going to give me anything for free. Monaco press points – Nijel Amos,November 20 2014 The staff from the doping organisation arrived at my house as I was getting ready to leave for the games village to deliver the news. In retrospect, I’m glad I was spared the humiliation of having to leave the games village, but it was still devastating to hear. It was the worst news I had ever received in my entire career, and I was at a loss for words about what, why, or even how something like this could have happened to me. I had put in so much work and effort in preparing for the World Championships which were held in Eugene — a place I called home — and being robbed of the opportunity to run in my ‘hometown’ was heartbreaking. After learning, I kept a close eye on everything I ate, did, and came into contact with, but I still don’t understand how the substance entered my sample. I even went so far as to test every supplement I took, and all of the results were negative. The most bizarre thing was that I was tested in Ostrava and the results were still negative. I then had testing in Rabat five days later, and the results were positive. The entire experience seemed so odd, and as I mentioned earlier, it still makes no sense. The entire process was financially, emotionally and spiritually draining. I battled for nearly two years until my resources and energy ran out, leaving me with no other choice than to make the admission. They know who I am and the principles I uphold, so having to explain how this happened was shocking and confusing to them. It was difficult for them to comprehend how something like this could have happened. Nevertheless, their love and support kept me going and they stood by me through that trying time, and for that, I am sincerely grateful. The goal is to stage the greatest comeback the world has ever witnessed and earn a spot in the September 2025 World Championships in Tokyo. I always have to remind myself that I still have a lot to give and that my story isn’t over, even on the difficult days when it’s hard to find the drive to get up and show up. Watching the performance of the upcoming athletes also inspires me and motivates me to train even harder. As a man thinketh so is he.’ I therefore do think I could run 1:41 once more. My current training indicates that I can and breaking into the sub-1:41 club would be an incredible dream come true. Who knows? Maybe I could even break the world record while I’m at it. I’ve changed a lot over the years; I’m now much more grounded, mature, and will approach situations very differently. If there is one thing Botswana does best it’s to unearth the greatest talents the world has ever seen and Letsile Tebogo is evidence of that. It started with Glody Dube, who was the first Motswana to run in the Olympics, then my era came and I brought the first individual Olympic medal and now in this generation, we have the world record-breaking athlete Letsile Tebogo. He is also inspiring the next generation of athletes to do so much more. A person’s name has great significance in my culture. I was named Nijel by my parents, which means champion, and that has manifested in a lot of different ways in my life. I remain the greatest, I will always be a champion, and my name will leave an indelible mark on history for future generations. The rise, fall and redemption of Nijel Amos, July 20 2024 External Links Category:1994 births Category:Living people Category:Track and field athletes Category:Sportspeople from Botswana