Britain is celerating it's first gold medal at the World Athletic Championships in Daegu. Dai Greene's sponsors Myprotein.com give a little insight into what it takes to reach the top. They spoke to Dai about the race itself and also take a look on to 2012
Dai Greene has won Britain’s first Gold Medal at the World Athletic Championships in Daegu in the 400m hurdles in a time of 48.26, marginally ahead of Puerto Rico's Javier Culson who came second in a time of 48.44secs.
After a nail biting delayed start to the race, Greene held his nerve and came through the field to win in the final 100m. He said 'I was a little bit disappointed that I was off the pace going into the last hurdle,' but ‘when I got ahead I thought "I'm not letting this go now."
So how did Britain’s new Golden Boy of athletics prepare for what has been the biggest race of his life?
He told his nutrition partners Myprotein.com: ‘I warm up for at least an hour before... sometimes seeing a physio at track side for extra stretching and muscle release work.’ ‘I will mentally prepare by planning my race out a couple of hours before hand, checking weather conditions and wind direction to see which stride pattern would be best to use. After deciding on this I will play out the race in my head, going through the stride pattern I plan to use.’
In terms of nutrition ‘before a race I like to eat a meal with carbs (rice or pasta), small amount of veg and a small protein (chicken or turkey) at four hours before I’m due to race. I do this so that I don’t feel too full when I’m competing. I also take beta alanine from my nutrition partners Myprotein.com as a buffering agent to help me cope with the lactic acid build-up.’ ‘After a race I take Myprotein’s L-Glutamine and Impact Whey Isolate to help my recovery.’
Dai has been working with Myprotein.com for two years now, with the aim of winning every major international competition on the athletics calendar.
Looking to 2012
Just moments after winning World Championship Gold in the 400m hurdles in Daegu, Dai Greene has turned his attention to London 2012 telling his nutrition partners Myprotein.com, ‘it's a lot easier during the winter months to train when you have a gold medal on the mantelpiece."
Yesterday Greene became the first Brit to win Gold at the World Championships in Daegu, adding to the already impressive Commonwealth and European Gold he won earlier this year. But the new World Champion isn’t content with just 3 major titles saying "Now I've got three from three from the last championships and I want to complete the set (at the Olympics) next year."
But it’s not all been plain sailing for the Welshman who says ‘I've had a lot of injures in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and was really struggling to make the squads and now look at me’ adding ‘I've worked very hard to get here and that's why I can deal with the expectations, because I remember being bottom of the pile." After years of hard work Greene is far from ‘bottom of the pile’ with such athletics greats as Edwin Moses saying ‘Dai is definitely the man to beat in London” and our very own Sally Gunnell saying ‘my money is on him for the gold,” adding “he is doing everything right... and in London he will have that homeadvantage – and that is when he comes into his element.”
Looking on to 2012 Dai continues to work closely with Nutrition partners Myprotein.com, tailoring his nutrition and supplements specific to his training and competition schedule to produce an Olympic Gold Winning Formula.
Click here to find out more about Myprotein.com
