Mark Lewis-Francis

Mark Anthony Lewis-Francis MBE (born 4 September 1982) is a retired British track and field athlete, specifically a sprinter, who specialised in the 100 metres and was an accomplished regular of GB 4 × 100 m relay. A renowned junior, his greatest sporting achievement at senior level has been to anchor the Great Britain and Northern Ireland 4 × 100 metres relay team to a gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Individually, Lewis-Francis has won the silver medal in the 100 m at the 2010 European Athletics Championships and silver medal in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, men's 100 m final. Quotes Man, I was locking up, my shoulders was freezing off out there. This is what I'm saying, I live for warm weather training. I'm off to Tallahassee next week, man. Get some sun on my back. It was always athletics, always, And always sprinting. I don't think I've ever run more than 500m in my life. At school, I was one of them in-the-bushes boys when it came to cross country. I was a hider. With sprinting, I started doing the 200m then dropped back to 100, then I've been doing 60 indoors - my ideal is 20. Sprinting is about being comfortable in your own mind, At the beginning of the season I sit down with my coach and we work out the priorities for the year. This year it's the Commonwealths and the Europeans. There is a pattern, man. It's all building nicely. In 2004. When I'm 21. That's a nice convenient time to peak, don't you reckon? Save money, innit. One's pay as you go and that's the one you get people to ring you on, the other's contract and that's what you use to call out. Everyone does it. It's not the same, indoors, You use the indoors as part of the build-up. Really it's no more than extended training. I'm not up there yet, the maximum speed is nowhere near there yet. You think you're 100% but you're nowhere near, there's a lot of hard work to go yet. You've got to keep focused, not think, yeah, I've done a good indoors so I'm up there. You always think you can run faster. That's the spur for next time. You take that dissatisfaction and you say, right, this time I'm going to nail it. But you never do. That's it. On the track, enemy's the word. An American guy once said to me, the track is our battlefield. Once you step off it you can be mates with who you like. But on it you are enemies. And that's true. I'm not about showbiz, Sure I'll psych myself up, sure if I win I'll celebrate. But I won't go over the top like those guys do. You've got 10 seconds to do your job. Anyone can be fit physically. Anyone can strut about posing. But it's about who's on top mentally. It's all mental out there. You've got to be positive all the way through, the minute you think negative about how good your opponents are you are finished. You have to stay focused. I was down for a long time with all that business. Last week was the worst of my whole life. After the police stuff, I went to the Glasgow indoor meeting and I double false-started for the first time in my career. I thought I was ready to run but, deep down, my head wasn't there. Now, I've got to put myself back on track. It's an experience, man. Mark Lewis-Francis,March 18 2002 External links Category:Track and field athletes Category:1982 births Category:Sportspeople from England Category:Olympic gold medalists Category:Living people