Olympics: Missing this opportunity would be so cruel a twist

Aug 7 2008 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

The Olympics is the place where sporting dreams come true but for some it can be the scene of nightmares. Stuart Rayner on two North East athletes whose Beijing hopes hang in the balance.

WHEN the Olympic flame is lit in Beijing’s Bird’s Nest Stadium tomorrow, 14 Northern athletes will be hoping it signals the start of the best three weeks of their life – but two are already facing the possibility it could be their worst.

Much of the talk in Britain from now until the closing ceremony on August 24 will not be about what is happening in the various Chinese stadia but what lies ahead in London four years later. To some, the 29th Modern Olympiad seems little more than a dress rehearsal but for those actually competing in Beijing, lifting a medal there will be the only thing on their mind. After all, no matter how old you are, with only one opportunity every four years there might never be another.

Anyone who thinks that is hyperbole just needs to have a quiet word with Newcastle-born Jessica Sylvester or Nunthorpe’s Chris Tomlinson. Even as the lavish opening ceremony gets under way, both will be wondering if they will get the chance to compete at the latest running of the world’s greatest sporting competition.

Possible fairytales lie in wait for the likes of Bradley Saunders, Alan Wills, Chris Cook and Matt Wells but the elation those northerners will feel if they turn their dreams into reality will probably be dwarfed by the hurt Tomlinson and Sylvester teeter on the verge of. The fate of long-jumper Tomlinson – hopefully the North East’s sole track and field representative – lies in the hands of the physiotherapists, swimmer Sylvester’s with the Great Britain selectors.

Tomlinson’s has long been one of the great unfulfilled talents of British athletics so his latest misfortune should come as no surprise. It will be Monday before the 26-year-old even knows if he can travel to the Olympic Village. For the man who produced the longest ever jump to finish fifth at an Olympics four years ago, this time could literally be a case of so near yet so far away.

Tomlinson tore his calf two weekends ago in his final outing before Beijing. The Teessider has sat out the team’s holding camp in Macau for round-the-clock treatment but even that might not be enough to pass Monday’s fitness test. “I’ve been better, to be brutally honest,” he admits. “I’ve got to be positive and I’m confident in the medics. But if I’m not right to run or jump I won’t be going to Beijing.

“I realised straight away something wasn’t right. It was soul destroying because I felt things were starting to come right for me.

“I had a reasonable indoors and after a poor start to the (outdoor) season by my own standards I felt I was coming into a good break of form. In training I produced some of the biggest jumps of my life and I believed I could produce a legal personal best.

“It’s very difficult but that’s just the way it is, you have to get on with it.”

While Tomlinson can curse Lady Luck, it is the rules and regulations which are threatening heartbreak for Sylvester. The 22-year-old looked to have been the main beneficiary of Melanie Marshall’s sloppy time-keeping at April’s Olympic trials but a reprieve for the latter has devastated the former.

Marshall outswam Sylvester in the 100m freestyle heats only to fail to make it to the call room in time for the final. She was disqualified from the individual event but selection rules for the relay allow for greater discretion and Marshall has been reprieved. Sylvester is in China but unlikely to make it into the pool.

Common sense has spared Marshall a punishment way outstripping the crime but having built Sylvester’s hopes up so high, they have a long way to fall. She has taken a year out from her Nottingham University degree and her family a fair chunk from their bank balances for a moment that may never come.

“It would be a big disappointment if I’m not going to swim,” he says. “Not only because I wouldn’t be swimming, but because five of my family have each paid £1,000 to come and watch me. My fiance, parents, auntie and uncle are going out to support me, and it’s not fair on them either.

“If they do go by the selection policy, which they should, I will be swimming. I understand they want to put the fastest team in, but they have to stick by their policy.”

Sylvester was part of the team which got GB into the 2006 European Championship 4x100m final only to be overlooked for the race itself. But the psychological effect of this on a potential 2012 medalist does not bear thinking about.

Alongside her in the Great Britain swimming team is proof that emotional scars can be healed, however. Derwentside’s Jo Jackson had not reached adulthood when she finished 21st in the 400m freestyle heats, one of the lows of a miserable swimming performance in Athens. But the 21-year-old will be in Beijing striving for redemption in the same event and alongside Marshall in the 4x200m freestyle relay.

With 16 athletes from the North East and Cumbria in Britain’s 313-strong team the region can look forward to a good news story or two in the coming weeks. But when rushing to salute the new heroes of British sport, spare a thought for those left behind.