I am 14 years old, and I want to know if my time of 2:08 is good enough to get into the Olympics for 800m? ?

Question

I haven't trained at all to get 2:08, but I was wondering if I was wasting my time trying if I got that time. I only got 4 years to train, whilst being in school - where I will be studying GCSEs and A levels.

Should I continue, or should I just do it for minor competitions. I run for my school. I got the best bleep test record of just roughly 12.8. Can someone give me some advice pls.

Answer 1

Be wary school timing is not done by graded officials they do their best but that is all The road to go down for you I would suggest is look at the English schools Qualifying times for your age go to a proper open athletics meeting get your time from the graded officials and compare this with the English schools qualifying you can do your studies and do athletics (look at the university athletics clubs Cambridge Oxford etc the athlete all fit in training with their courses Now if you do  want to be a middle distance runner join an athletics club prepare yourself for the English schools next year then take it from there The step from schools athletics to club athletics is a big one so be prepared for some disappointments on the way the Uk athletics site will point you in the right direction for a club near you

Answer 2

mabye you should speak to a trainer

Answer 3

I think you should just do a few minor Competitions. Your Beep test score is really good by the way!

But I think your studies are more important. You can just run for fun whenever you want!

Answer 4

Mens - 800m Records

World Record: 1.41.11 Wilson Kipketer Den 1997

Olympic Record: 1.42.58 Vebjorn Rodal Nor

2000 Gold Medallist: Nils Schumann GER

2000 Silver Medallist: Wilson Kipketer DEN

2000 Bronze Medallist: Aissa Djabir Said-Guemi ALG

no

Answer 5

I think this is a repeated question?  Anyway, this is what I have said in response to the other:

First things first, your athletic peak will be between 21 and 29, so you've got something like 10-15 years to build on yet.

Get your time down to under 1:48, and you enter the UK Athletics "finalist zone" on their performance funnel. The link below. Don't get downhearted about 2:08 when you first look at it as you haven't finished growing yet. Sure, you are 20s off that time, but you haven't done any training.

Ordinarily I would say train hard etc, etc. To you I am going to say sit down in front of the TV.

Confused?

Sit down in front of the TV on Saturday afternoon about 12:25 UK time. The mens 800m final will be about to start. They are the best in the world, and they will also older than you by about 10-15 years. All of them have put in a lot of training, but all the training in the world won't help unless you have a natural talent. You've got that.

Watch the reaction of the chap who comes in first. As well as you, probably around a billion people will be watching him too. Then ask yourself whether you'd like to be in his place.

If the answer is yes, then the next step is to find a local athletics club which will get you access to coaching, and will see you make a lot of early progress. UK Athletics may then see you as a star of the future, and grant you funding, but that's a way off yet.

If you want an example of what's possible, I was a 400m runner. At 15 I did 62s to win at school. I joined a club and soon got that down to 54.6s within a year.

What really annoys me is that it seems your school teachers haven't identified your talent. Maybe you won't be the next Seb Coe or Steve Ovett, but you are in with a shout, and it's their job to bring out the best in you.

One chap I was at school with was running 100m in 10.4s on the school grass track which was slightly uphill. He had bags of talent. That was 1984, and they were doing that sort of time at the LA Olympics to qualify for the final. He had no interest in using his talent except to run away from the police. But he couldn't outrun a police car and I heard he ended up in prison.

The teachers tried to encourage him but in his case he wasn't interested.

Good luck and as I said to a budding 400m star yesterday, remember me if they are playing your tune on the podium.

PS

1. I forgot to say in the other answer that the second link has profiles of athletes getting funding.

2. The bleep test is a way of ascertaining someones VO2 max and shouldn't favour endurance runners over sprinters or vice versa.  12.8 is pretty impressive, but I have no idea whether that is 'excellent' for a 14 year old, as most of the ratings I have found start at 18 years old.  The third link below gives more info on the bleep test and what it is all about.

3. I did an answer to the Irish National Champion at 800m, you can read what he said at the bottom link.

Answer 6

Mate, you have a ******* amazing time, HOW THE **** DID YOU DO THAT AT ONLY 14!!!! I am a 400m runner, i used to do 800 but im built more like a sprinter now, you never know, wen you really start to grow you might turn out the same. Judging by ur time i would say yes you should try for 2012. Especially if ur British. That Snowbord person is obviously jealous of you, dont let that ***** make you give up on ur dreams. You should join ur local atheletics club for some personalized training, which should fit around ur school timetable, but just in case, i would keep up with ur studies, remember me wen ur crossing the line first!

Good Luck, keep at it

Answer 7

Ignore all the mean people on here! There's a lot of cranky people on here this morning!

I think you should go for it! If you keep practising you will be able to build up your stamina, might even improve your time. A one-off 2:08 time is not the same as constantly practising and improving everyday so that each time you run the 800m you either get the same time, improved time or maybe a little under.

My point is you should go for it but you do need to be running everyday, there's no reason why you can't be in the Olympics!

Good luck!

Answer 8

Hi i am aimee

i do loads of running and i have got really far with it. i have just turned 13 and i have been asked 2 join all different types of groups for athletics.

my time is 2m 55sec nowhere near as good as yours you should 100% try athletics even thought athletics is hard after you have done one competition it all become worth it. the time that it took Olympic people to do the 800m was 1min 54sec was the winning time that was by Pamela jelimo and 2min 02sec was the time of 8th place by tatiana Andriana.

you are not far of this time and remember 4yrs is a long time but i promise you it will be worth it.

to get started on training you need to .....

1. start one week of training at home

2. then decide if you really want to do athletics

at home you shouldpress upssetc estretchrech before and after training.

you need to run every day or as many days possible when u run, run a a little further then 8oom so that when u run the 800m it will seam short. soz this message is long.  

Answer 9

If you don't try you will never know.

See you at the olympics

Answer 10

fishing for compliments

Answer 11

the world record is 1.41.11 , but i dont know about all of the standards and stuff.  

Answer 12

I don't now if the time its self is good enough but training for the Olympics and being at school is hard work.

If you get singed up with a Olympic training team the take you out of school in the afternoons three or four times a week to train.