Steve Lewis won't let fear factor put him off

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/d ... eId=132401

OLYMPICS: LEWIS WON'T LET FEAR FACTOR PUT HIM OFF OLYMPIC STRIDE
BY GRAHAM MELTON

10:30 - 05 August 2008

Loughborough-based Steve Lewis has talked about the fear factor in the pole vault as he prepares to tackle his first Olympic Games.

The 21-year-old, who was today flying out to the British athletics training camp in Macau, admitted that it had been a dream of his since he was 12 to compete at the Olympics.

But in the first part of his Olympic diary for UK Athletics, the Beijing-bound athlete explained how there was "a different psychology to pole vaulting than a lot of other disciplines and sports, because you've got the fear factor, there's an edge to it, if you get it wrong you can die."

Trying to clear a bar more than 18-and-a-half feet above the ground with the aid of a bendy pole obviously comes with inherent dangers. Think falling off a ladder!

According to the National Centre for Catastrophic Sports Injury, 14 pole vaulters died from their injuries between 1983 and 1999. And that figure does not include the coach who, while demonstrating in 1998, bounced off the landing mat, struck his head on the concrete and died.

Lewis said: "I haven't got a fear of pole vaulting, I feel like it can't get me because I'm in control of it.

"There's nothing that fazes me about it. I respect the event a lot - I realise it's dangerous and I have to be on my game when I'm doing it.

"I don't just turn up and go through the motions, I go to training and give it 100 per cent and make sure I get the most out of it.

"I think if you keep doing that and you don't lose your edge and your respect for the event, you can keep doing it safely."

Lewis, who earlier this year jumped a lifetime-best 5.71 metres, felt he was ahead of schedule in terms of progress, and admitted he "pretty much expected" to make the Great Britain team after achieving four 'A' qualifying standards and winning the trials.

"We've had things which have gone well and a few things which have gone badly," he said.

"I made the 2005 European Juniors, in 2006 I competed at the Commonwealth Games but then I got injured.

"Then in 2007 I jumped PBs, caught everything up again and made the World Championships, but then I jumped badly there. Since then everything's gone really well.

"I have hit 5.70m four times, had a few attempts at the British record and made the Olympic team, so I'm on track if not a bit ahead."