David Greene (C) of Great Britain celebrates after crossing the finish line and claiming gold ahead of L.J. van Zyl (L) of South Africa and Felix Sanchez of Dominican Republic in the men's 400 metres hurdles final (© Getty Images)
The success of the British squad at the recent World Indoor Championships provided a real lift for Dai Greene, as the World 400m Hurdles champion continues to ready himself for the upcoming season.
Hi again,
“Since my last IAAF diary column I have a lot of good news to report. Firstly, my training is progressing nicely and I’m more than happy with my fitness. I also really enjoyed watching my Great Britain team-mates perform with distinction at the World Indoor Championships in Istanbul. Meanwhile, my beloved Wales have secured a Rugby Union Grand Slam and I’ve also got a new addition to the household which is taking up a lot of my attention.
Starting with my own form, I’m training as well as I could have hoped and I’m excited about the season ahead. Having said that I’m not complacent and I know I have two months of seriously hard work ahead of me before the start of the new season when I’ll start to taper back my training.
“As for competition plans I’m going to sit down with my coach, Malcolm Arnold, in the next week or so and draw up a schedule for the season ahead. This is not confirmed yet but I’m likely to start my season at the Samsung Diamond League meeting in Rome on May 31. I may take a look at one international competition the week before, but Rome is the likeliest option for my first competition of Olympic year.
“While I’ve been head down immersed in training some of my GB team-mates have been busy competing with pride at the World Indoor Championships. I thought the British team, although far from full strength, were magnificent in Istanbul. They won nine medals in total and it gave me a real lift in training. In fact, in the few days after the championships I was so inspired I’d say training was a lot more comfortable than usual.
“I was really pleased for my training partner, Andy Pozzi, who finished fourth in the final of the men’s 60m hurdles and also set a personal best in Turkey. He performed with great maturity under pressure and showed the potential that he could be a world-class hurdler. I’m not easily impressed but Andy was fantastic and a pleasure to watch.
“On to other matters and I’m currently appearing on the same commercial as Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel. It is an advert for one of my sponsors and although I didn’t get to meet Sebastian during filming – he was at a separate location – I am a huge F1 fan. I’m a massive admirer of Vettel and the British drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, and I love to sit down and watch the sport because you get so much behind the scenes information.
“I’m not sure I could match the pace of those boys though, having said that I like to drive fast. Of course, I don’t speed on the roads but I did reach around 260-270kph at a track day at the Nurburgring in Germany last year, and I think that was above average.
Now, to the addition I alluded to earlier. My girlfriend, Sian, and I are proud to report we have a new member of the household, Buzz, a Hungarian Viszla puppy.
“For the first four days he cried every night but he has quickly settled down and become a real part of the furniture. You could say he is very excitable, but at the same time he is very wary of new things. Thankfully he already understands a lot of the commands which is making life progressively easier. Why Buzz? Well, some friends asked if Sian and I minded signing a few items for a three-year-old boy called Daniel that they knew who is being treated for cancer. Of course, I didn’t mind signing the items and when we were there we discovered he really liked Buzz Lightyear. We picked the dog up that same day and for us it seemed appropriate for us to call our dog Buzz after Daniel’s fondness for the animation film character.
Until next time,
Dai