Perri Shakes-Drayton's preparations ahead of Olympics
A specialist in the four hundred meters hurdles, British athlete Perri Shakes-Drayton has been prominent at her forte from a very tender age. The English School Championships provided her with the opportunity to set her first record, which was a UK junior record time at the four hundred meters hurdles. Her first international tournament was the World Junior Championships in Athletics held in 2006, where she finished at the eight position, together with achieving a personal best of 57.52 seconds.
The European Athletics Junior Championships held in 2007 allowed Shakes-Drayton to receive a silver medal, in addition to a national junior record of 56.46 seconds. Despite emerging victorious at the trials for the 2008 Olympics, Perri Shakes-Drayton failed to make it through to the A grade selection list and hence could not achieve her dream of participating at the Olympics; she is nevertheless being rooted as a sufficiently strong candidate for the upcoming London Olympics in 2012.
2009 proved to be a providing year for this aspiring athlete, as she emerged second at the four hundred meters hurdles, and also improved her personal best. The European Athletics U23 Championships held in the same year proved to be even more momentous, as Perri Shakes-Drayton grabbed the gold medal, with an extremely impressive completion time of 55.36 seconds, further upgrading her personal best. Very recently, in June of this year, Shakes-Drayton emerged victorious at the Memorial Primo Nebiolo held in Turin, Italy with a personal best run of 54.91 seconds. Therefore Perri Shakes-Drayton is indefinitely one of the most promising athletes that Great Britain has offered in a considerable amount of time, and her level of consistency, combined with her unfaltering determination and intense physical strength make her a pivotal member of the athletics squad.
With the Olympics approaching, preparations aren’t the only thing increasing steadily, as Perri Shakes-Drayton’s confidence is too. She recently discussed how the venue for the Olympics being staged in 2012 is only a few minutes’ worth of walking away from her current residence, and then she discussed her aspirations for the upcoming tournament. The talented British athlete has made it evident that she hopes to make it to the final, and upgrade her performance to attain a completion time of around 53 seconds. At the same time, she is cautious about hoping for too much, since the upcoming Olympics will be the first of her athletic career.
The upcoming European Championships to be held in Barcelona seem to be a promising occasion for Perri Shakes-Drayton to claim her first international medal at the senior level, as well as boost her confidence and morale for the London Olympics. While the World Championships in Berlin last year did provide her with an engaging opportunity to experience the aura at a senior level tournament, at the same time they left her with ligament damage in her ankle. Disregarding that, Shakes-Drayton discussed how the experience at Berlin was pivotal in acclimatizing herself amongst some of the greatest athletes of the world; she also elaborated how it soared her spirits, a feeling that will definitely be useful ahead of the European Championships in Barcelona.
While a victory at the European Championships will certainly be a delightful moment, not only for this gifted athlete, but also for the country she represents, her main point of focus remains the 2012 London Olympics. One hopes the level of exertion and practice that Perri Shakes-Drayton is putting into preparing herself for this giant event come in use, and she is able to set her mark permanently in the field of athletics. While there is considerable time left to wait and discover whether Shakes-Drayton can materialize her dream of a victory at the Olympics into a reality, lets hope that meanwhile the European Championships provide her with consolation and motivation for ahead in the form of a medal and another personal best.
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