200 Metres – Sports day

After seeing the Rocky competition, I'd thought I'd share my underdog story.

1999, it’s my final year at school and it’s Sports Day. Don‘t know how it happened, but some how I got lumbered with running the 200m and to make matters worse I’m up against Shelley Davies. Who, you might ask? Well, she was the fastest girl in our school, undefeated at 100 and 200m and she also ran for the county. I was always fairly good at Cross Country(3miles) and 1,500m, but never really any good at sprinting. So you can imagine my ‘delight’ at being chosen by my form teacher to run the 200. Nobody had a hope in hell of beating Shelley.

The race started and I’ve no idea how I managed to still be level with Shelley going into the final straight. Think she was just as surprised as me! May be it was the shock of me being next to her that caused her to stumble and give me the split second to edge in front and win the race.

I know it’s sad, but I still get a kick out of winning that race. Underdog doesn’t come close to describing my chances of winning. Just wish someone had it on video! Still, got my medal – priceless!