Twenty-five year-old Plaisance native Winston George will be taking to the track in a matter of hours to run the race at his life at the Olympic Stadium of the London 2012 Olympic Games in the first round of the men’s 400m race.
Of the three track and field Olympians, George is the only athlete who lives and trains in Guyana. The Guyana Police Force Impact Patrol Base rank had achieved the Olympic `B’ qualifying standard after posting a blistering time of 45.86 seconds at the ALBA Games in Venezuela just over a year ago. George was later sent to the High Performance Centre in Jamaica where he benefited from a five-month training stint in preparation for today’s event.
George’s remarkably journey is on the brink climaxing as he runs on the World’s biggest stage at the Olympic Games today.
George will take the track at 10:35hrs London time (05:35hrs local time) running in heat six of seven in the first of three rounds of the men’s 400m. George may have a very good chance of qualifying by time as he is in the same heat with reigning Olympic Champion Leshawn Merritt of the USA who has a season’s best (SB) of 44.12s. The fastest athletes in each heat will automatically qualify for the next round along with a few of the losers with the fastest times. Guyana’s four-time Olympian Aliann Pompey benefited from this yesterday when she placed fourth in her first round heat but advanced to the semi-final of the women’s 400m which will also take place today.
George’s Coach Lyndon Wilson, a former 400m campaigner himself, told Stabroek Sport that he is confident in his athlete’s chances of getting out of the first round.
Wilson also stated that George is teeming with confidence and is fully prepared to give his best effort.
“He is confident and we have the feeling that he can get in to the semis because he did well at his time trials” Wilson said via email yesterday. “The man is full of confident and he wants to do Guyana proud,” Wilson added.
With his season’s best of 46.51s which he posted in Trinidad and Tobago to take second place to IAAF World Champion Kirani James just over a month ago at the Hampton Games, George feels that he is in good shape to make his country proud.
