So what has been happening? How's my training? What about Olympic qualifiers?
To be honest I feel bad because I know I am not as focused as I should be and my training is only mediocre at the moment. I am carrying one or two injuries that are on their way to being 100% but have required me to rest the last few weeks. Rest would mean not competing, kicking anyone or jumping up and down. I basically have a tiny fracture in my left ankle from my fight against Puerto Rico at World Champs in Beijing in May. If you imagine the cracks in an eggs shell, that meshed look, well that’s what the bone in my ankle looks like. Not technically a break, but called bone bruising. Any type of impact on it, kicking or jumping and landing on it, even running has been aggravating it. With lots of physio and rest it is starting to feel better and hope to be kicking in the next week or two. It’s very frustrating but if I don’t rest, it doesn’t get better.
I’m sure that raises a few questions about my participation in the upcoming Olympic qualification tournament in Manchester. Well officially, I have not been selected to the team to fight. How it works. For Olympics there are four weight divisions; however every country is only allowed to select or have a maximum or two players competing at the Games. That means they have to asses each weight division on its merits. How strong is that weight division competitively globally? How many other athletes will be trying to contest that same weight division? How many world ranked athletes are there competing in that division and what are the chances of qualifying in that division vs. competing and trying to qualify in another weight division? Which athletes do we choose, who will have a better chance possibly of qualifying? At the upcoming World Qualification tournament only the top 4 spots, 1st 2nd 3rd and 4th go through. At African selections only 1st and 2nd (two spots) go through.
So my coach and the manager decided that although I competed well last year and have one or two good results this year, my not so good performance at World Champs in Beijing in May and the fact I lost my first fight in Algeria in the +80kg class, they decided to rather send two lighter athletes to contest the -58kg and 68kg division. As such, I haven’t been selected.
So it’s a bit of a disappointment! If I don’t get selected to go to the World Olympic qualification tournament or the African qualification tournament then I don’t get to qualify, which means I obviously don’t get to go to the Games! SOooooooo… It’s been a bit of a mental battle. In a way it’s been good, because I have needed to rest my ankle and it has given me the space to think matters out and decide on my options.
Since I haven’t been selected for the trial end of September, my next opportunity is the African Qualifiers in Libya beginning of November. So as much as I’ve been resting, I have still been keeping fit and strong and doing what I can. I have had to stay focused regardless and keep training. The threat of injury is always very high, and basically I’m a reserve. If Alfeus -58kg, or Duncan -68kg, gets injured, I will have to fight.
I have to say that I am not motivated or focused like I should be and because of that feel I have failed in someway, that some part of me as given up! Then I remind myself! I have to pick my self up by the scruff of the neck and give myself a talking to! "Bloody wake up! This is the Olympics and you have to fight for it!" So yes I am resting now as much as I need to, but after September there is still a chance that I will be selected... So I need to buck up, look up, step up, take control and make sure I am ready!
Dan Quayle
"The question in life is not whether you get knocked down. You will. The question is, are you ready to get back up... And fight for what you believe in?"
Horace
"It is courage, courage, courage, that raises the blood of life to crimson splendor. Live bravely and present a brave front to adversity!"
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