The Electronic Telegraph Thursday 2 August 2001 Brendan Gallagher MARK LEWIS-FRANCIS faces his first big test. The World Championships in Edmonton are approaching and the cream of the planet's sprinters will fight for a place in the 100 metres final, the sport's showpiece event. He must be getting nervous. The stakes are massive; there is no room for error. The tension is high, fuses short, egos big. It is a fascinating but edgy world of grimaces and grunts, meaningful stares, subtle mind games and explosive action. No place for a fresh-faced 18-year-old, surely? Actually, Lewis-Francis is feeling just fine, the most relaxed he's been since bursting on to the British athletics scene last summer with a 10.10sec in the Crystal Palace Grand Prix, the fastest time by a 17-year-old. "The future of British sprinting can be summed up in three words," Frankie Fredericks proclaimed. "Mark Lewis-Francis." Within weeks, three words had become three letters. The `Boy-Wonder' is now simply known as `MLF'. So far so good. World and European junior gold medals have followed, the latter in Grosseto only last week when he ran a wind-assisted 10.09sec, and was also a surprise bronze at 60m in the senior World Indoor Championships - when he broke the world junior record with 6.51sec - and a winning debut in the European Cup. "The pressure is finally off," Lewis-Francis said. "Nobody will be bothered about me in Canada. I can just do my thing, enjoy the champs, soak it all in, try to run quick. "It's been non-stop over the last 12 months. In my age group I am the man to beat and losing would be seen as a failure. Silver medals aren't allowed. Then there was the Olympic thing last year. Could I qualify and was it too early for me to go? Loads of pressure and big decisions. This season there has also been the European Cup and world trials and constant talk about me breaking Dwain Chambers's world junior record of 10.06. "But now nothing. I rank about 15th in the world. I'll be a very small fish in a massive pool. Perhaps I can just sneak into the final - that's my aim - but winning a medal? Absolutely no way man. I'm only 18. Next time? Maybe. "My times have been good this season but I've been tight and tense. Thinking too much, trying too hard. I've got to give my brain a rest and just do it. I need to go on to auto-pilot. "What I've been doing over the last year is learning to be a winner. A crash course really. I want to know how to win medals and remember what it feels like. Warming up, warming down, reporting for races - heats, semi-finals, finals. Feeling nervous, not sleeping before races, false starts, hot weather, cold weather, hotel life. Learning how to cope. Big championship medals don't always go to the fastest runner on paper." The likeable Lewis-Francis, who plies his domestic trade for Birchfield Harriers, has been a huge boon to British athletics as the dark recent years of insolvency recede in the memory. Around the tracks of Britain he has become a pied piper figure, the youngsters flocking around and never being disappointed in their request for an autograph or a posed photograph. Any encounter always concludes with a heart-felt request from MLF. "Make sure you cheer for me out there, I need your help." Physically he's strangely normal - neither imperious and long striding nor short and powerful. Average in build and reasonably muscular in a loose-limbed manner, it's his bounce and spring that underpin an exceptional sprinting talent. He barely seems to make contact with the track as he skims along. No flailing arms or exaggerated effort, he is technically a joy. Off the track he still bounces around with relentless child-like energy, but when he finally keeps still for 10 minutes - all things are comparative, he constantly shifts from leg to leg and jives a little in true rapper fashion as he talks - a shrewd and distinct personality emerges. Before most races, after his first exploratory jog down his lane, he will drop to one knee and say a quick prayer. He will then turn smartly, clap his hands vigorously twice and jump high into the sky clenching a fist, as if celebrating the winning goal in an FA Cup final. "I'm not religious in that I don't go to church on Sundays but I do say a prayer to myself almost every day and when I'm feeling really nervous before a race, I'll go down on one knee and say a few words. You always need a bit of extra help." Lewis-Francis is distinctly unsentimental about his well-documented Jamaican roots - both parents are Jamaican and his father and two sisters still live there. Ben Johnson (albeit drug-assisted), Donovan Bailey, Linford Christie and Don Quarrie are just four sprinters of world renown who have hailed from the island. "I've been there once. It's nice, I enjoyed meeting all my family and I look forward to going back sometime. But I'm not Jamaican and I wouldn't really want to live there. I'm British. Birmingham is my home, I love it there. Britain is my country and I am so proud every time I run for Britain. Make sure you cheer for me out there, I need your help." Eamonn Condon www.RunnersGoal.com
