The race to the top is a marathon, not a sprint

Published on Saturday 19 January 2008 19:15

Golden girl of 2002 has chance to fulfil her promise six years on

GEMMA Nicol's rite of passage on to the senior international athletics stage has not been an easy one. Who could forget the fresh-faced 15 year old at Manchester 2002, the baby of the Scotland team at the Commonwealth Games? She'll go far, they nudged.

But the stellar rise to the very top didn't follow and, although the 400-metre specialist from Pitreavie has never fallen off the radar, the viral illness which dogged her last year ensured that she was on the very periphery of its range.

Hence it was, Nicol admits, somewhat of a surprise when the call came last week to inform her that she was to earn her first senior Great Britain vest at the still tender age of 21. On Saturday she will compete in the Norwich Union International at Glasgow's Kelvin Hall against a field which includes America's Olympic relay medallist Monique Hennaghan and experienced Jamaican Shereefa Lloyd, who will represent the Commonwealth in a five team event which also includes Sweden and Germany.

Since coming under the wing of Seoul Olympian Brian Whittle three months ago, it is towards such occasions that the Fifer has been grafting.

"Because I had so many injuries last year, I had to do lots of conditioning and endurance work, just to get myself back in proper shape," she says.

Darren Ritchie, the former long jumper, has overseen that restorative process while Whittle has focused on the nitty gritty of bolting from blocks to tape. Plus there has been help from her contemporaries, Lee McConnell and Carey Easton, who have welcomed her into their training group.

"Lee's been great," Nicol enthuses. "Just being in that environment has pushed me forward. What she and Carey do is not that much different from what I've been doing anyway. But that's given me confidence, knowing that."

The myriad voices have raised her spirits rather than caused confusion.

"Everyone's working on the same thing which is to get me running faster.

"Because I had such a bad spell, I was quite low. It's been a help to listen to them because they know what they're talking about. Brian's been there and done it. I've just put myself in his hands and got on with it."

If there has been ample assistance on the track, it has been notable only by its absence off it. Although Nicol led the Scottish rankings with 53.46 in 2006, while still in her teens, the supply of funding was stopped when she was forced to the sidelines. A hairdressing student at Adam Smith College in Kirkcaldy, affording the commutes to work with her mentors is a definite stretch.

"I get nothing now," she says. "My mum and her boyfriend have been brilliant to me. They've paid for everything. I have a car and they basically run it. I'm at college and the bursary I get doesn't even cover the petrol costs for getting there and back, never mind to training. I'm lucky. If I didn't have that support, I'd not be in the sport now."

There is little obvious resentment, however. Just a matter of getting on with studies, training and the added responsibilities of helping to care for a disabled brother. "I try not to moan about it," Nicol says of the decision to withdraw her support. "I can prove things on the track."

Next weekend will provide an indication to whether she can truly cut it. But among strong competition, it is not make or break. True deflation, she claims, came while watching last year's UK Championships on television. "I should be there," she told herself. "People would say to me 'you can do it next year, you're still young'. Which I am. I know it would have been harder if I wasn't."

If one trait has emerged from the extended frustration, it is a greater patience. A few years ago, Nicol reveals, she alone put undue pressure on her still wiry shoulders. That has changed. "Now I take other people's opinion. But it's only on myself."

She adds: "When you're at under-23 level, you felt you have to make that leap. At under 20, you're given space. You have that safety net. And a lot of people were just happy for me to be out there competing. That's changed now I'm older."

Older, wiser but still young. Nicol may no longer be the adolescent prospect. But there remains time for the prodigy to blossom.

Tickets for the Norwich Union International are available on 08000 556 056 or online at www.ukathletics.net