Olu Fasuba wins gold

Kinda shows the calibre of this forum

I concur: that lazy bastard PJ should forego the fiesta, skip the siesta, and post his mail post-haste;)

And to think he felt his calves at around the 40 m mark. Although you never know, I don’t think the Nationals is a problem for Olu. The problem is that the dates for the Nationals pop up out of nowhere! :stuck_out_tongue: TMSSF, it would be interesting to see PJ’s view on your post!!!

KK, if PJ doesn’t post it soon, make him! :smiley:

I know it’s a little delayed, but well done PJ, good going!

Well done Olu and PJ. Look forward to a ‘postcard’!

Dear All,

I guess my postcard is a little bit to late, arriving after i arrived.
Thanks for your kind comments and support.

We had a lot of luck this winter with no real problem sportwise or not. No miss training, etc. From November when he resumed training after a successful end of 2007 season, he was able to cope with ease with any workout i threw at him. By December and early January the times at training were crazy, but the travel to Europe in mid January left him with a sore back which really wasn’t solved before Valencia meeting where very efficient Spanish physios were at work. Before, he had run his fastest ever opener in 6.56 in Moscow, then was beaten in Stuttgart (6.60) because of a mistake in his position in the blocks. The main thing was to do well on World Champs’ track during Valencia meeting, and in spite of a 0.174 reaction time he did 6.51. His personal best stands since Stuttgart 2006 with 6.49, done with a 0.138 R.T. Going back to his training base in Greece, his training was ok until the next week-end when it snowed heavily in Athens. Cold, even indoors, prevented him to do a couple of very important practice. In Paris, he did 6.64 for 5th place, with less than 2 weeks to go to World Indoors. A mistake in his spikes choice for a wooden track for sure, but mainly he needed a complete physio check-up which was done the very next day. Now beeing able to run tall again, he still underperformed in Aubiere just 10 days before World Indoors, with 6.58 beaten by Collins (6.56). Lack of sweating and bottles in the hotel room were symptoms of dehydratation. When an athlete underperforms while everything should be ok, you better find the reason especially so soon before majors. And the athlete really has to trust his coach 100% when the coach tells him that he will get better day after day until the day of the Champs, up to his best shape.
The last trainings were indeed better and better, with a last one on Wednesday (2 days before the D-Day).

We arrived in Valencia at around 12, get to accreditation hotel, then go to our hotel (one of the 7 reserved to the teams) by walk because we wanted to go to lunch before it get closed (3pm) and there was no shuttle available. Transportation was a problem during these champs (the only one i can think about because it was well organised), there was only 2 shuttles to training that day, so we took the one at 5pm to warm-up track. There, Olu did good starts and times so we had an estimation of his shape at 60m (mid 6.4).
We managed to get the same room and the next morning was devoted to administrative things since official from NGR had not arrived, and registrations were closeing at 11am. The President came later that day with green bodysuits (the one used in Commonweath Games 2006), you surely noticed it in the great pictures posted by kitkat! (Olu ran without uniform in the last world indoor and outdoor champs)

On Friday, i told Olu to run 6.65-6.67 in heats and let Christian win the race, which olu tried but failed… win in 6.64, olu said it was the easiest 6.64 he had ever run, he didn’t tried to sprint which was the point in heats to save energy for the next two races scheduled later in the afternoon and evening. Note that for the first start, the gun didn’t sounded, but some of the runners ran the while race, then had to start again. Olu and Christian, more experimented, didn’t and stayed behind the blocks.
Then we had lunch and i let Olu get a 2 hours nap (this tells how much an athlete is confident in his abilities and the competition day planning…). Olu get the easiest of the 3 Semi-Finals. I didn’t told Olu a specific time to run, instead i told him to win slightly his heat, and that the second and third placers would run around 6.60. Olu was surprised by Yepishin’s jumping start (RT 0.103) but caught him within a few strides, then maintain speed from 30m and shut down with 15m to go (see how relax he his on the pics). 6.51 with 0.150 RT. He matched his World Leading mark. Then a long wait before the final warm-up. Then call room during 40min. I gave Olu some exercises to do in case he felt sleepy, he indeed felt sleepy on some occasions and did the exercises 3 times. One of the finalists chose the mind game option to destabilize Olu, staring at him with mad eyes, and imitating the exercises Olu did. Which left him tired of course, so Olu knew that guy was now out of the medal contest.
In final, Olu’s RT was 0.149, not great, but was slighlty leading at half-way were he seemed to fight a lot. He still increased his lead to match the WL in 6.51, but he told me the explanation of it after the race : he cramped in both calves after 20m and missed a step, then had to relax his body as much as possibel while, because of the pains, his face turned to red… As he crossed the line, it seems that the cramps were gone because he was jumping everywhere!
We-Were-So-Happy. I was then thinking of a few people who helped us and are plenty part of Olu’s success, encouraging me when i though i would gave up in October, following our lives through the winter with constant support. No need to name them, they know who they are.
Next day was the award ceremony. By chance, we found a former Nigerian athlete based in Spain which borrowed a NGR vest for the podium. Green suits him well! I could measure how popular is Olu from all the congratulations he received from his rivals, coaches, managers and meet directors. He is reknown to be a nice guy to work with on the circuit and friendly with oponents.

Now Outdoor season will start soon, so Nick, there is no way we are going to make a peak for the Olympic Trials, planned on April 17th. The races will be part as a special endurance training. Then African Champs on May 1st to try to get a record of 8 medals at African Champs or Games.
TMSSF, as for the Speed Endurance done so far, nothing was longer than 60m (high volumes and split runs). For speed, longer distance was 80m. That’s the same thing we did two years ago, when he ran 6.55 and 10.11 (World Champs and Commonwealth Games) in March. He is now worth close to a tenth faster at 60m but still a lot of work to do in the road to the Olympics!

Whish us good luck!
PJ

That is impressive. What are you expecting him to run outdoors?

I wish you and Olu all the best throughout this year. Not excluding consistent good health and less external stress.

Thanks for the postcard PJ. It really helps people to see what it’s like at the top.

BETTER late than Never, PJ :wink: :stuck_out_tongue:

Seriously, thanks for your insights which are worth a thousand pictures! :slight_smile:

Thanks for the insights. Like Charlie and KitKat said, it is inspirational to see what goes on at the top. It can only help all of us at levels beneath that to learn and grow!

Yes very good PJ…and congrats for you and Fasuba also…always good to hear the dramas, and mind games in the background that you don’t see.

PJ curious to what these exercises you were doing were to keep Fasuba awake…I too suffered from that recently with the large gap in rounds…had to sing loudly to myself to stay awake.:cool:

Thankyou for your postcard PJ. Great to see Olu doing well again. Let us hope this can be continued to the Olympics and beyond. Forever now you will be the coach of a World Champion and that is one thing very few people ever achieve.

Planned on the 17th April, LOL… :stuck_out_tongue:

Thank you!

For whatever reasons, I just read all of this.

Very very cool :slight_smile: :slight_smile: