Interview: Eilidh Child, Scottish Olympian

By Paul Forsyth
Published on 01/07/2012 00:13

EILIDH Child has been teased by the Olympic Games since she was, well, a child.

If it was not Linford Christie and Sally Gunnell inspiring her to dream, it was a visit to Greece in 2004, when she was among just a handful of British schoolchildren chosen to participate in a four-day sporting and cultural festival ahead of the Athens Games. As part of what she describes as a “mini-Olympics”, they visited the first Olympic stadium, where the first Olympic torch was lit. There, she watched the Olympic flame depart for its ceremonial journey around the country.

Now, the Kinross girl is a woman, the swimming at which she once excelled has made way for 400m hurdling, and the Olympics are an even bigger deal than she imagined them to be during those innocent, carefree days in the school playground. “It is always something you dream about. When you are younger and you are doing sport, you always think ‘I want to go and compete at the Olympics’ but you never really know how hard it is. You always think ‘if I am good at primary school, I will be good when I am older’.

“You never know how tough the journey is to get there. Even when they announced London, I was thinking, ‘I could be there but I will need to work hard to make sure I am there’. It has only been in the last couple of years that I have thought ‘I should be on that team. I should be making it a reality’.”

Child sealed the deal last weekend at the Aviva Trials in Birmingham, where her second place in the 400m hurdles made her the first Scot, quickly followed by Eilish McColgan, to make the GB athletics team. It followed a big performance in Geneva last month when her personal-best 54.96 seconds – a new Scottish record – met the Olympic qualifying time.

That was one of Child’s many great leaps forward since taking up hurdling in her early teens. Her family were all swimmers – thanks to their mother, who represented Scotland – but the turning point came when Eilidh’s elder sister, who had led her into athletics, set up canes for her to jump over in the driveway. A natural at the event, she made eye-catching progress in secondary school, suffered a lull in her development at university, before finally showing her mettle in 2010, when she broke Sinead Dudgeon’s 11-year-old Scottish record, and won a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi. London, though, will mean more to her than any of that, even though the 25-year-old’s medal chances are slim.

“The Olympics is definitely that bit special. That’s what you always aim to do. That’s what people always ask you. When you say you’re an athlete, it’s ‘are you going to the Olympics?’, ‘have you been to the Olympics?’ To call yourself an Olympian does make a big difference. I think just to go there and run well would be nice. I’ve spoken with my coach about it, and we think the final is definitely realistic. By no means is it going to be easy. I’m going to have to run my rounds like they’re finals, and run fast but, if I can execute the right race, and get the stride pattern right, I should make that final. Based on how everyone else is running this season, I’ve got as good a shot as anybody to make the final. Then anything can happen, especially in hurdles.”

Child speaks wisely about the discipline that dominates her life. It is a more technical event than many give it credit for. The “stride pattern”, which has to be adapted according to conditions and form, must be maintained when fatigue sets in. Spatial awareness separates the best from the rest, together with an ability to attack the last hurdles as you did the first.

Melaine Walker, of Jamaica, and America’s Lashinda Demus are among those setting the standard, although Child is convinced that she is closing the gap. “Before, I would see the Americans and the Jamaicans as kind of superhuman, miles ahead of me. But nobody’s really set the heather on fire this year in the hurdles. That’s probably because they’re peaking for the Games, but I do see myself clawing back a wee bit and getting close to them. They’re not as far ahead of me as they were. They say that hurdlers peak when they are 27 or 28 so, hopefully, in a couple of years, with more experience, I’ll be able to get close to them. There’s no reason why I can’t.”

Child is ambitious, but also refreshingly down-to-earth. Olympic hopefuls immersed in an individual pursuit have to be single-minded and, at times, self-obsessed but she retains a healthy appreciation of the wider sporting world. Currently living in Bath, where she can concentrate on her Olympic preparations, she plans eventually to return to her job as a PE teacher. She loves football, and like the rest of her family, is obsessed with Hearts. Her lucky wristband is maroon with “talk o’ the toon” written on it.

Neither will she be so focused on her Olympic dream that she cannot smell the flowers along the way.

“I think I’ll be really excited when I get the kit, get to the village and see the other athletes,” she says. “The only competition I’ve been to where there are other sports was the Commonwealth Games but there wasn’t really a huge turnout for that so it’ll be really exciting to be in the same team as someone like Andy Murray. I’ll be starstruck and asking for autographs.”

If that doesn’t get the adrenaline flowing, race day will. Child has already experienced the Olympic Stadium, thanks to a test event that hosted her first outing of the season.

The geography of the venue is such that athletes will undergo an unusual build-up to each event.

“It’s a long walk. The warm-up track is quite a bit away from the stadium, then you’ve got to go to the call-up room, then it’s a long walk through a tunnel to the next call-up room. Then it’s another long walk. But now I’m aware of it and know what to expect, it’s fine. It’s just about making sure I’ve got enough layers with me if it’s cold.”

Child could find herself competing on two fronts at the Games. She went into this weekend’s European Championships in Helsinki, hoping to impress in the 4x400m relay, an event in which the British Olympic team has yet to be finalised.

She says: “The hurdles have always been my main thing but it’s quite nice to be part of the relay because athletics is such an individual sport. You’re always running yourself so, when you’re part of a team, it does make it a bit more interesting. If I’m not good enough, I’m not going to be totally devastated but it would be nice to be part of it.”

Child, who is improving every year, feels that her best is yet to come. The joke is that her sister, Catriona, a writer whose debut novel, Trackman, has nothing to do with athletics, will one day help her with the autobiography. Whatever else she does in her career, the Olympics will figure prominently in it.

• Eilidh Child is sponsored by Team GB’s Olympic partners BMW and supported by Grassicks dealership in Perth. See www.grassicksbmw.co.uk