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New kid on the blocks
An overcast summer evening in Perry Barr, Birmingham. Wrapped in an entirely inappropriate pale blue cardigan, I am standing on the red, springy track at the city's Alexander Stadium, some 175 metre away from a young man who has just launched himself out of a set of starting blocks. The man, whose flapping, sinewy face looks like that of a fighter pilot caught mid-manoeuvre, is hurtling in my direction,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], a feat he performs with such majestic immediacy I am finding it difficult to stay rooted to the spot. Will he be able to stop? More to the point, has he even noticed that I am standing in his way? Rather than wait to find out the answers (Lycra on cashmere: it could be messy) I retreat to a nearby patch of grass exactly two nanoseconds before he thrusts his chest forward and his shoulders back - a sign that he has slammed the brakes on his winged feet. When this man runs, it is as if the track is just so many Shredded Wheat and he merely has a hefty appetite. He eats it up, every stride a giant mouthful. Already the fastest teenager in the world, this summer he will run in the men's 100m at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, the most high-profile race of his first full season of senior competition. Though he expects to do well - during the team trials, he achieved a personal best time of 10.07 seconds - for Lewis-Francis, a trip north is only the beginning. A visit to the club, which is based at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham, is an instructive reminder that - although Mark and his ilk now receive Lottery money to help them pursue their dreams - in this country, athletics is still very much an amateur sport. There are swirly carpets, draught bitters and a canteen doing brisk business in hot suppers (tonight's special: pasta bolognese), and the place is full to the brim with noisy parents here to watch their little darlings run and jump. Concentrating must be especially hard for Mark, who is considered something of a love god at Birchfield, his every move scrutinised by tittering girls. But he is also a softie, generous with his time. 'They're horrible, those kids!' he says, looking embarrassed when I bring them up. 'But once, I was one of those kids, so I try to be nice.' On Platt's instructions, he now makes his way back to the starting blocks.'Do I have to do it again?' he says, in a voice that resembles Harry Enfield's Kevin the teenager. 'But I'm tired.' He lies on the track. Is he about to do some stretches, or is he going to pretend he's too exhausted to move? Platt,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], who is holding two pieces of parquet (snapped together, they sound like a starting pistol), looks impassive. Teenagers are all the same, even those with medals to win. His mother, Hermin,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], works with the elderly and disabled in Birmingham, and his father, Sean, now lives mostly in Jamaica, where he runs several guest houses. Mark knew he was fast, even in junior school. 'We used to play British Bulldog and no one could catch me,' he says. 'But it was only sprinting I was good at. I used to hide in the bushes in cross country. I used to wait for them to do a lap and then I'd join the group.' When he turned 12, his father brought him down to Birchfield Harriers to see if athletics might be for him.'He was good, even then,' recalls Platt, who has helped out at the club since 1984. 'But we didn't know he'd ever be as good as he is now. Lots of kids come down here to let off steam, then they reach 14 or 15 and something happens: they fall out with the sport, or they discover girls - that's a big problem - and then they drop away. But not only that. It's also very unusual for someone who's good at 12 to carry on being good.' About three or four years ago, however, Platt began to think Mark might just have something. 'It wasn't simply that he was running fast,' he says. 'He looked the part as well.' Lewis-Francis won his first English schools title in 1997, when he was 15. Though more medals followed, he didn't come to the attention of the national media until 2000, when he withdrew from the British Olympic team so he could concentrate instead on the world junior championships in Santiago, Chile. He duly won gold in the 100m. Afterwards,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], he went to college to study sport science but only lasted six months; the Lottery, which provides him with a small monthly stipend, together with a sponsorship deal with Nike (the sportswear company helps out with kit and travel expenses) meant he was able to leave and train full time. 'During the day, I see the physio, have massage and sleep,' he says, anxious I do not think he just sits around.'Training is very tiring. It's intense. It's explosive. So I need a lot of sleep.' Sometimes, he says, it can be hard finding the inner resources he needs to be completely disciplined about his sport. He misses junk food and regrets that he cannot party with his friends. 'Sunday morning training is the hardest. It means you can't really go out with your mates the night before.' So he doesn't tend to drink and smoke lots of fags? 'No way, no way, no way!' he shouts. 'You'd be throwing up, man!' Consequently, for the time being at least, he is perfectly happy to live at home with his mother and three little brothers. 'Yeah,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],' he says, making a funny strangled sound (a verbal blush). 'I've got a girlfriend. I'm not gonna lie. But she's not in sport. That's one thing I would never do - go out with a girl in sport. All that may be about to change,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], however, with a phalanx of young British runners tipped to take over, maybe in time for the next Olympics, the Athens Games in two years time. 'In a very short space of time I can see Britain boasting the top sprinters in the world,' says Donovan Bailey, the Canadian gold medallist at the Atlanta Games in 1996. 'They are all young enough and I like their style. They train hard, run fast but also have a good time. They think that athletics is fun. America has such strength and depth and produced so many great runners for so long. But that is what the British are doing now. The British public should be excited. Britain will win gold in the 100m in Athens.'The Brit pack, almost all of whom are Afro-Caribbean, includes Christian Malcolm, Dwain Chambers and Darren Campbell, but even in this exalted company Lewis-Francis is seen as exceptional. 'Mark Lewis-Francis is quite simply the most phenomenal and exciting athlete I have seen in my life' Bailey adds, while Frankie Fredericks, a double Olympic silver medallist simply says, 'The future of British sprinting can be summed up in three words - Mark Lewis-Francis.'Even so, the lifestyles of Lewis-Francis and the other young stars could hardly be more different from, say,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], their footballing equivalents. Joe Cole of West Ham United, who is arguably Britain's most promising young footballer, is only a year older than Lewis-Francis, but earns more than £20,000 a week. Mark's deal with Nike brings him the tiniest fraction of that. Not even the Beckham-style sparklers in his ears are real. Mark runs for love, not money - even if, sometimes, he doesn't love it very much at all. The trick now is to make the transition from junior events (where he won everything) to the senior circuit (where setbacks are inevitable). One day, he thinks, he'll be up there with his heroes, Carl Lewis and Linford Christie. But he isn't in a rush. 'I've a long way to go yet. At the next Olympics I'll be 21. I want to be the best in the world. I probably won't win a medal at the next Olympics, but I want to win one at Beijing 2008 A lot of top athletes, their heads swell, know what I mean? I want to climb the ladder slowly,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], see what happens. It'll be another year before I even start thinking about records.'The world-record time for the men's 100m is currently held by the barrel-chested American Maurice Greene, and it stands at a phenomenal 9.80 seconds. To get even close to achieving such a time, a sprinter must be good at three things: he must start well,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], bursting out of the blocks like a hot geyser; his pick-up must be good (pick-up is the bit in the middle of the race - yes, really, the infinitesimally small period of time between a runner's first two steps and his final, desperate bid for the white line); and he must, of course, be a fantastic finisher, checking out his opponents, accelerating all the while, ducking at the last moment. Whoosh. What could be easier? Mark Lewis-Francis is very good indeed at the last two of these, but not quite so brilliant at the first. So the main focus of his training now is on improving his core strength - the idea being that, the stronger he is, the better he can launch his ravenous attack on the track. 'Mark is only just developing his weight training,' says Graham Knight, technical director of sprint, hurdle and relay for UK Athletics, who acts as the link between athletes, their coaches and the British team. 'He's a big boy but he needs more power. That, and a slice of good fortune, will help him to take on the Americans.' Knight, who used to be a classics teacher, is quick to defend the somewhat old-fashioned system in which Lewis-Francis has grown up. 'He has phenomenal natural ability but, more importantly, he wasn't over-trained at a young age. Thanks to the close relationship he has with Steve Platt, he's been allowed to come through the ranks naturally.' Wouldn't he benefit from having a professional coach, rather than someone who, however dedicated, has learnt all they know as they've gone along?'Most British athletes keep their original coaches because loyalty and belief is a massive thing,' Knight replies. 'Luckily, coaches can now get non-threatening support from us - that's the key.' There's support for Knight's stance from Jon Smith,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], coach of gold medallist Greene. 'I'm often asked by people if Mark should join our training group.' he said last year. 'I don't know who coaches him but the kid is 18, he's run 9.97 and he's beaten Olympic bronze medallist Bruny Surin. Whatever they're doing,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], they're doing it right. This has, Knight says, made a huge difference to everyone involved. In the future, he would like to see full-time salaried positions for coaches - although, given that there are 22 disciplines in track and field, this will be expensive. 'In 10 years, things will be radically different,' he says. 'But this process can't be evolutionary; it needs proper strategic development. Meanwhile, the clubs will continue to do their work. I always advise athletes like Mark to get professional management and for their coaches to get involved, too. 'He's like a second father, really, and he doesn't get paid for it. That's why I'm always here on time.' Together, they are working on his muscles - and his mind. Mental strength is almost as important as speed if he wants to win. When he is in the blocks, he says,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], all he sees is an empty sheet of paper. 'You get into a tunnel. You think about nothing. Off the track, the other athletes are my mates but on it, they're my enemies. It's a very selfish sport, you just focus on yourself. Don't look at anyone else, thinking they might beat you - that's when you start slipping.'What about afterwards? How does he feel then? 'Relieved.' He laughs. 'You're just so happy that you haven't picked up any injuries and if you win,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], that's a bonus. I've done my hamstring and that was horrible, but breaking my leg is my biggest fear. Half the time, I can't remember anything about the race once it's over. When I see the videos, I'm never sure how I've done it. I can't believe it. Then you need time to recover. I'm going to be 20 in September - that's old and I'm starting to feel it. I get aches in my back, my legs, my shoulders. everywhere. Your body can only take so much.' I spend the next half an hour watching Lewis-Francis strut his stuff outside - though mostly from a safe vantage point in the stand. He keeps his jewellery on and runs in space-age shoes, their laces concealed by a zip, and tight, stretchy leggings. The top, however,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], is a baggy sweatshirt. He isn't keen on those all-in-one catsuits, he tells me - they look far too, well, camp. 'I wish,' he snorts. 'Spider-Man! That'd be good.' He waggles his feet, and looks at them wistfully. Earlier,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], he had told me that he tried not to dwell on his considerable abilities and, looking at him now, I believe him. In spite of the reputation that goes before him, Lewis-Francis genuinely seems to have no idea that, to clod-hopping mortals like me (fifth in the school 400m - out of five), he is already a superhero of sorts. But, as the diffident Steve says, better not tell him so. Not while there's work still to be done.
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