News24 Oct 2005


Sanchez - 'When I am 100% fit, the story will be different'

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The start of Felix Sanchez in the 400m Hurdles semi-finals (© Getty Images)

After a troublesome twelve months of injury which ended his four year domination of the 400m Hurdles discipline, the Dominican Republic’s Olympic champion Felix Sanchez is now looking back to his college days for inspiration, as he attempts to recover from the hamstring, calf and foot injuries that have hampered him.

Back to training in November?

After recently visiting the Dominican Republic and Cuba, the California-based Sanchez is now in Europe receiving treatment at the Gabriele Rosa Marathon Centre in the Italian city of Brescia, with the assistance of therapist Christobal Whetstine and doctors Mario Scerri and Carlo Tranquilli.

If everything goes well during the 10-day therapy, Sanchez is determined to start training again in November, with one main focus in mind. “I want to prove I am the number one at the 400m Hurdles”.

The 2001 and 2003 World champion had contrasting words to assess an injury-plagued season. “This year was horrible, but was good for me. It came to a point where I had achieved almost everything I wanted (in my career). I was not training that hard and I kind of relaxed. But I want to get back to my college days when I was hungry for success and try to be as dominant as before,” confirmed Sanchez when visiting Cuba last week.

Sanchez had been invited to the island by High Jump World record holder Javier Sotomayor, and during the visit he met his friends, the 2000 Olympic champions Anier García (110m H) and Ivan Pedroso (LJ).

The 28-year-old said that he had asked his coach Avondale Mainwaring to change the training plan as he intends to break the World record next year, the 46.78 set by USA’s Kevin Young in the 1992 Olympic final in Barcelona.

Based in Culver City, California, Sanchez will be joined in training by Jamaica’s Danny McFarlane and France’s Naman Keïta, second and third behind him in the 2004 Olympic final.

“They have just built a new nine-lane Mondo track and that’s where we will train.”

"I never run for third. I always run to win"
 
Despite his injuries, at the World Championships in Helsinki last August, Sánchez insisted he wanted to defend his World title. After qualifying to the final with a season's best of 48.24, the pain beat him and he could not keep running after the first hurdle.

“I lost about five weeks of training in less than three months before Helsinki. I have been injured before, but not that late in the season. Yet, I managed to run 48.24 with one leg.”

“I wore different spikes in the final hoping to resist the pain. I could have run like I did in the semifinal and opt for the bronze with 47.90 or so. But I never run for third. I always run to win.”

“I talked to (2005 World champion) Bershawn Jackson after the final and he told me he was ready. But when I am 100% fit, the story will be different. They beat me, but I want to get the World title back and prove I am the best 400m hurdler nowadays.”

Jackson won the first global title at 400m Hurdles for the US since 1995.

“This year was not my time,” said Sanchez. “I don’t want to say it was bad luck. I believe in God and things happen for on reason”, he continued.

Rivals to push him

“I am truly looking forward to the 2006 season. You need rivals to keep going. We now have around 10 men who are running very fast. It is more difficult to dominate the event now.”

“Edwin Moses stayed undefeated for 10 years and nobody can take that away from him, but back then there were only three men running less than 48 seconds. I want to prove that a Latino can also be the best of all times”.

Sanchez believes that current World champion Bershawn Jackson is his main rival. “Jackson has a lot of confidence and no one compares to him. We all train, but confidence is the best aspect of an athlete. If you think nobody can beat you, then you become a very tough contender.”

Twenty-year old Kerron Clement, who posted the fastest time since 1993 this year (47.24) “is physically very talented, but has to train more psychologically”.

“Before 2005, the event was less competitive. We now see four or five athletes and at least three of us can run under 47 seconds. Only Kevin Young has broken that barrier.”

“We can all push each other and improve the calibre of the event. That’s what the crowd wants to see. You don’t want to go to a track meet knowing beforehand who will win, it’s like the 110m Hurdles” in terms of competitiveness.

With no Olympic Games or outdoor World Championships scheduled for 2006, Sanchez sees the Golden League, which he won in 2002, and the IAAF World Cup in Athens as his competitive goals, but more importantly, he aims to recover the number one spot in the IAAF World Ranking.

World record ambition

To fulfill his World record purposes, “I don’t think I have to change my running technique that much, except the last two hurdles, where I should run 14 steps instead of 15”.

Sanchez holds the Central American and Caribbean record of 47.25, set when winning his second World title in Paris 2003. This time ranks him eighth in the all-time lists.

A sporting exception in the Dominican Republic, where baseball players are the nation’s heroes, Sanchez believes that “we have athletes in Latin America. Not all of us can excel in baseball and I want to say to those living in the US to support their roots, not forget where you come from, and compete for your country of origin.”

Javier Clavelo Robinson for the IAAF

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