Nijel Amos
The 2014 men’s 800m Commonwealth champion, Diamond Race winner and 2012 Olympic silver medallist Nijel Amos shares the things he has learned during his short but stellar career.
1. Embrace pain
“I remember running the 2011 World Youth Championships in France, where I finished fifth in the final. But when I got back home I realised I have to fight the pain.
“I had gone too far to turn back now. I don’t want to one day look back on my career and have any regrets. I remember later at the Olympics [where Amos won silver behind David Rudisha's world record run] I ran through the pain – I was stretchered off the track – and earned my medal.
“It had worked. When your mind is fighting your body and telling you to give up you have to be positive and say ‘I am going to do it’. Back at the world youth championships I had failed to control that. My mind was weak.”
Amos finished 5th in the 2011 world youths: at the 2012 world juniors he took gold
2. Stay patient
“It is important to not panic in race and show patience.
“At the 2014 Prefontaine Classic Mohammed Aman took off with 250m to go. I kept patient and kicked in the final 100m to win the race.
“Sometimes I have not been patient, like [the 2014 Diamond League meet] in Stockholm last year. I was leading the race and suddenly all these guys were passing me down the back straight. I finished fifth but I should have gone with the flow of the race more.”
Aged just 18, Amos won Olympic silver in London in a world junior record 1:41.73. That time would have won him gold in every other 800m final in Olympic history.
3. Believe in yourself
“The Olympic 1500m champion Taoufik Makhloufi came up to me ahead of the Prefontaine Classic meeting last year and said ‘You are the future, but you are the only one who can make changes and take that step to reach your goals’.
“Suddenly a feeling built up in me like I am in charge of my own destiny. From that moment on I have thought I can do this. In the past I had gone into races and not really believed in myself. I had lost the race before it had even started.”