By Steven
Downes
29 January 2001 – You will need to concentrate carefully to follow this next passage. John Skeete is from Leytonstone in east London, he represents Scotland, he is a member of Harrow, a club in west London, and he trains in Birmingham.
But one thing is simple, since joining the ranks of the world’s elite sprinters by running 6.59sec to win the Norwich Union AAA Indoor 60 metres championship in Birmingham on Jan 27, Skeete is a young man who is going places.
What remains uncertain at this stage is whether one of the places the 22-year-old Skeete will be going to is Lisbon, Portugal, for the IAAF World Indoor Championships in March, in what would be his first full international for Britain.
Skeete’s powerhouse performance at the British championships, where he beat Olympic 200 metres finalist Christian Malcolm and former European 60m champ Jason Livingston into the minor places, saw the young Londoner burst into the competitive vacuum created by the absence from this post-Olympic winter action of the likes of Jason Gardener, Dwain Chambers and Darren Campbell – all sprint medallists at recent international championships.
It is a gap that Skeete’s physique fills amply – he stands 1.90m tall and is a lean-looking 86 kilograms, with a well-honed, text-book sprinting style.
But now, Skeete needs to decide whether to accept selection for Lisbon, or to concentrate on his preparation for the summer season, as his new coach, Tony Hadley, would prefer.
Skeete’s previous obscurity from international attention – before this season, his 60m best was 6.74sec – was due to repeated injuries, curtailing the progress he made in his teens, when he won the prestigious English Schools’ 100 metres title as a 16-year-old in 1995 with a windy 10.74sec.
The injuries have interrupted his progress every season since. His outdoor best remains a relatively modest 10.53sec from 1999, the year that he qualified for his first outdoor national final, finishing fifth.
"I thought then that next year – Olympic year – would be my year to make it," Skeete says.
But another hamstring injury during the winter was never shaken off, and when he returned for the British Olympic Trials last August, he ended up walking off the track almost inconsolable, crushed by defeat in the heats. Forced to survive on just $60 weekly unemployment benefit, the privations and struggles to make it as an athlete no longer seemed worth it. Skeete was on the verge of quitting the sport altogether. "It took my girlfriend and my mother to talk me out of giving up," Skeete said.
The political composition of Britain – combining England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – makes for sometimes complex sports funding arrangements while offering some extra competitive opportunities. Despite being born in the English capital, by having Glasgow-born mother, Skeete was able to opt to compete for Scotland – and so receive a $4,500 annual training grant.
But when Skeete failed to run faster than 10.40sec last summer, even that support was cut. When he raced in Birmingham at the weekend, Skeete used a borrowed tracksuit and a pair of spikes donated from a friend who has a contract with a major sportswear firm. Times are hard.
He grew up one of nine children in Leytonstone, one of east London’s poorest boroughs, and now is the father of a one-year-old daughter, Micha. "I'd like to be able to do more for my daughter," he said. "I believe that if I manage to run well, it will benefit her."
Skeete's father, a good standard club athlete in his own right, knew about sprinting, and young John took to the sport naturally.
Coached by his father, he made progress. But whenever the Skeetes needed extra help or advice about the injury problems or obtaining some modest training stipend, they would hit a brick wall.
"My dad would phone the governing body, and he would speak to people, but nothing ever seemed to happen," the new AAA champion said, somewhat resigned.
"I have had a lot of hamstring injuries, and my dad has laid out thousands to help get me sorted," he said. "Ideally, I’d have physiotherapy or massage twice a week, but that costs £20 [about $30] each session. So I have to make do with going just once a month.
"I try to look after myself sensibly, eating well, buying only fresh food from the markets, no tinned stuff. I get by, but only just, and only because of my parents.
"The only support I've had is the grant from the Scottish lottery, but even that has gone now. I needed to run 10.40 for 100 metres, outdoors, but did not manage it, so it stopped."
Since October, with his father doing the driving, Skeete has been making the five-hour round trip from his London home to Birmingham twice a week to train under the highly regarded Hadley. Skeete first saw the benefits a week before the AAA Indoors, when he placed second to Livingston at the Scottish championships in Glasgow.
Now he is ranked equal eighth on the British all-time list, his performances having obliterated the 14-year-old Scottish record of 6.62sec that had stood to Elliot Bunney.
His father missed the big day. "He prefers to watch it all on the television," Skeete junior said. "Besides, he's always taught us to be tough minded and independent, so that we know what we have to do in warm-up without having him there all the time."
If anything, it was Skeete’s performance in the semi-final which was the most impressive, where he literally pranced over the final 15 metres or so, almost high-kicking from the knees, to ease down before the finish without straining his delicate hamstring, yet still recorded 6.60sec.
In the final, Skeete needed full power all the way to the line, following a stumble out of his blocks as both Livingston, a renowned fast starter, and Malcolm, the former double IAAF world junior champion, got the jump on him. By the finish, Skeete had a two-metre lead over two of the Europe’s finest ever sprinters.
"I never thought I could run 6.60," Skeete said. "My aim was just to get to the final, but once there, I wanted to win and run a lot faster." Mission accomplished.
