Doha: US hurdler David Oliver, the 2008 Olympic Games and 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships medalist enjoyed a life chat session with his fans on the IDL Doha 2014 Facebook page www.facebook.com/dldoha
The 110m hurdler who is one of the first athletes to arrive in Doha, feels confident and he is really looking forward to compete in Qatar Sports Club, the place which brings him wonderful memories, as this was the Stadium he first dipped under 13 seconds.
He had a very interesting chat with his fans where among other he said:
*Season and lifetime goals:
I am Glad to be back! I definitely have good memories from Doha. This was the first place I ran 12 seconds in my career. That will always be a great memory.
I hope I am in a shape to run under 13secs again here in Doha.
It’s always very hard for me to predict a time as the hurdle event is always unpredictable.
The things I have been doing in training and the few competitions I have had indicate that I am in shape for that, I just have to have the competitive composure to put it all together at the same time.
My goal this season is always the same every year, to run as fast as I can and win every race.
That doesn’t happen of course, but that’s what I strive for. Another goal for 2014 is to win my third Diamond League title, I think that is the major event I have on my calendar this season seeing I don’t have a big time championship this season.
An Olympic title is of course the main target! Most of my life goals at this moment are all sports related, but when I retire, I will segue into the next segment of my life and set some new life goals.
*Training regime, nutrition:
I have given up lifting weights in the traditional sense of it.
I believe that was one of the major reasons I was getting injured all of the time, so fall of 2012, I gave it up aside from deadlifting occasionally.
But when I was lifting everyday, I could bench press 225, 19 times and squat 310, 10 times. That’s pretty much it.
Now I’m specifically lifting on the strength boards.
I don’t spend much time doing hurdle drills oddly enough. I think I achieve a low flight time because I really focus on my lead leg mechanics.I don’t do anything special or have any rituals before going out to race. I’m not that type of athlete really. I just like to get out on the track and compete.
I am not very specific on the nutrition really. I just try to make sure my plate is colourful like the rainbow. That’s something my coach is big on and that’s kind of what I do. I do intake a lot of protein as well and if I’m not really training, I keep my carb intake low too.
I have never run the 100m before actually. I think I can go at least 10.5, I would hope. I’m not really that fast as far as leg speed. If they ever took the 110 hurdles out of the sport, I’d have to start circulating my resume because I couldn’t do anything else.
*About David Oliver:
I am not exactly sure what I would consider the biggest hurdle I’ve ever overcome, but I would say when I decided to embark on this journey to becoming a professional sportsman, things were very tough for me. That adjustment from being on college, where everything was taken care of, to now being on my own was difficult. I didn’t have any type of sponsorship or Nike contracts at the time, so I was working eight hours a day, then going to train and lift weights everyday for nearly three years before I fully got on in the sport. I think that having that as my background is what keeps me grounded as well.
In 2005, I was working at the Nike Store at the Premium Outlets in Orlando. In ’06-’07 I was working in the stock room at a Finish Line in the mall and later in ’07 at Home Depot. Those were the places that were kind of flexible with the hours so I could train and be able to take time off to go to competition.
I am not sure I have a specific advantage over my competitors. I believe I am very strong mentally as well as physically and that helps me overcome any shortcomings I think.
*Preferences:
I follow a lot of sports very closely. I love sports! NFL, NBA, World Football specifically. I am a huge fan of the Miami Dolphins, Denver Nuggets and Arsenal.
Allen Johnson is the Greatest Hurdler of All Time, easily. His consistent level of performance throughout his career is the main reason I consider him the best. Couple that with his Olympic gold, countless world titles, still the all-time sub13 man and he’s second to none in my book.
He may have never held the world record, but at the end of the day that’s only one.
THE PENINSULA
LONDON: Sixty years since becoming the first man to run a mile in under four minutes, Roger Bannister has said defeating Australia’s John Landy to win Commonwealth Games gold was a greater achievement.
It was at the Iffley Road track in Oxford that Bannister achieved sporting immortality by running a mile in a time of three minutes 59.4 seconds on May 6, 1954.
But defeating Landy -- who had lowered the mile mark just 46 days after the Briton’s record-breaking feat -- at the 1954 Commonwealth Games in Vancouver was the superior feat in Bannister’s opinion.
“I think that racing in the Olympics and Commonwealths is more important than breaking records,” Bannister said, with the current mile world record held by Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj in a time of 3:43.13 secs.
“Vancouver was the pinnacle of my athletics career. It is very difficult to break records during Olympic competition, but winning races was better than holding world records.”
Having suffered the disappointment of coming fourth in the final of the 1500 metres (0.932 miles) at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Bannister was determined to do better at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games (now known simply as the Commonwealth Games).
Landy led for most of the race, but Bannister overtook him on the final bend, when the Australian looked round to check his position.
“The race between the two of us was a very, very special race,” Bannister said of a contest dubbed the ‘Miracle Mile’.
“It determined which would be regarded as the superior runner in the history, not the not sub four minutes, but the head-to-head nature of the race in Vancouver.AFP
