The Road to Qualification

I can't believe it has been a month since my last update. I guess I've been pretty busy and not at home much in that time.  Our qualification cycle started the day after the Olympic ticket window closed.  That day we were on a plane to Athens for the first competition counting towards selection: the Coupe d'Acropolis held in the Athens Olympic Park. 

I was feeling in pretty good shape prior to the competition having completed ten days of intensive but fun and rewarding training with the Spanish and Belarusian teams in southern Spain, and on the back of a third place finish at the Birmingham International the previous weekend.  There have been record fields at the World Cup competitions this year so we went expecting a large and tough competition with perhaps as many as 165 entrants.  There were 196. I was in poule 26 in the third wave.  70 athletes missed the cut, including myself and unfortunately none of the British team made the last 96.  It was strange to think that after that first day nearly 3/4 of the field were sitting in their hotel rooms unhappy at their result, again including myself.  Next time it will be more of the same, only I hope to be in that other quarter. 

I recently read a great article on the BBC Sport Website concerning Judd Trump's achievements at the Crucible in the recent Snooker World Championships.  The article deviates to discuss the existence and idea of talent.  Matthew Syed has taken the unusual argument that talent is false and instead greatness is built on hard work.  I certainly agree that the greatest players are often the ones who have worked the hardest. Success is never easy in any walk of life.  Watching Federer at his best play tennis is effortless; the same as Messi playing football, but each has put in thousands of hours of practice wanting to be the best that they can be and ultimately the best in the world.  

It is up to me to work as hard as I can, to realise my 'potential for excellence' and to persevere when things do not quite pan out as I would like.  Success is built and realised over time.  Without putting in the hours you cannot qualify for the Olympic Games, you have to want it, to believe it and work hard for it.  Between now and Madrid, you'll find me at training.