Saturday 21 August 2010

BRONZE MEDAL TO A TROJAN ATHLETE!

Saturday / Sunday 22nd/23rd August
Bronze medalist David with coach after this morning's ceremony.
David Bolarinwa remained the world's top-ranked under-18 male sprinter tonight as his Jamaican rival failed to beach his sensational 10.39s mark in London two weeks ago!

David was, however, edged into the bronze medal slot after a far from ideal start in the Youth Olympic Games 100m final, clocking 10.51s, literally thousandths of a second adrift of silver.

"I'm immensely proud of David's achievements here," said coach John Powell, "and I know he will have a sense of frustration it wasn't a different colour medal, but this will have been an absolutely massive developmental experience for him, and he enters junior and senior athletics now far better equipped than pretty much any of his predecessors!

"But it might take a few days for that side of things to sink in, and who can blame him.  He was hugely motivated for this race, and told me only minutes before on the phone that he felt great, but at this level if you don't get out of the blocks you are dead in the water.

"David has spent the last two weeks adjusting to an extreme tropical climate, has been thrust into the media limelight on TV worldwide, coped with the hype of being the TeamGB  flag-bearer, and has been the target of hoards of reporters and interviewers at every outing.  At 16 that is huge, and he can only emerge a better sportsman for it.  I have seen him grow in stature daily - he is a credit to TeamGB."

David will be back in the Bishan Stdium Sunday morning to receive his medal, and on Monday night will represent Team Europe in the medley relay where a second medal is up for grabs.

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