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

dude.. in middle distance running your peak is around 25-32 years old... so you got plenty of time... try train hard for the 2016 olympics...   your time is prety good for your age.. was around the same as mine..

the qualifying time for oylmpics in 800m is 1:47.50..  

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

if you didn't train AT ALL to get a 2:08 that's pretty ridiculous.  Run track for your school and see how much better you get when in shape.  That'll give you an idea.