Elliot Giles: I want to be more than just an Olympian

By Elliot Giles’ reckoning he wasn’t even a blip on British Athletics’ radar going into this year, let alone in the conversation for an Olympic spot. He’s come as an unfancied outsider but that doesn’t mean he’ll settle for less.

The 22-year-old has risen to prominence from seemingly nowhere in 2016. Emerging from years of injury which have battered his body into a state of perpetual fragility, Giles claimed a surprise win in the 800m at the British Championships earning himself his first GB senior vest at the European Championships, which snowballed yet further in Amsterdam into an Olympic qualifying time en route to a remarkable bronze medal in a world-class field.

The height of the middle-distance runner’s plight was in 2014 when he came off his motorbike in Birmingham city centre, waking the following day with severe spinal compression and minor brain damage among the litany of wounds suffered.

Giles is grateful for his progression and the work his team, led by coach and former British international Matt Yates, has dedicated to enabling him to reach a point which seemed virtually impossible just a handful of months ago but the Birchfield Harrier has no plans to let up.

He said: “I don’t want to just go there and say I’m an Olympian. I want to go out there and try to win my heat, win my semi, get to the final and see if I can try and win that too.”

The plan is clear, even if the exact route hasn’t always been so. Giles and Yates have had to develop an original training regimen revolving around hourly as opposed to daily alterations to counter the residual effects that training can have on a body only now starting to get used to regular running.

Not for …

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