It's always been too slow for me. Playing. The pace of things. I'm a fast sprinter. The trouble was, after playing in the group for a few months, I couldn't reach that point.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Fitness has always been one of my strengths. I can do all the long-distance runs. When I was at school and we entered the competitions, I used to do the 100m, 200m, and the 1500m as well, so it's never just been a pace thing.
I could produce spurts of speed and after taking up athletics I found myself running quite quickly over 400m.
I was definitely living fast. I was working, traveling a lot, playing. I didn't stop. It all became unbalanced.
When I was young, I was too slow. I thought I must learn to run fast by practicing to run fast, so I ran 100 meters fast 20 times. Then I came back, slow, slow, slow.
Why should I practice running slow? I already know how to run slow. I want to learn to run fast.
It's not a sprinter's approach. It's more like a long-distance thing. You can stick around a lot longer if you kind of slow-play it.
I remember in the first part of the race I was sixth and I could have gone quicker, but I had to go slow. It was one of the most difficult things I have ever done.
Every time I go out and race it's a goal to go out and run faster than I've done before.
When you have good runners, you always run fast. That's the motivation for me. But I have room to improve in my technique and in the start.
I have run two Olympic 'A' standard times over the past 12 months and with the time I ran at the African Championships last week I know my speed and fitness are constantly improving so that I will peak in time for the Olympics.