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Spofforth Set For Shanghai Defense
Mar 7, 2011 - Craig Lord
Manchester - British Gas Championships, day 3 finals:
Women's 100m backstroke
Gemma Spofforth arrived in Manchester seeking “redemption” for the loss of her national 100m backstroke crown last year and ticket to the defence of her world crown in Shanghai this July. Her mission completed with a 1min 00.52sec victory over defending champion Elizabeth Simmonds, the 23-year-old is set for a critical audience at the US Embassy next Monday.
Beyond another battle with Simmonds, over 200m, on Friday, Spofforth's next target is the Green Card that would allow her to return to her beloved Florida, alma mater, home of the Gators team where she is coached by Martyn Wilby and the Alachua County Crisis Center where she serves as a volunteer on a night-watch suicide hotline.
Spofforth's tussle with Simmonds reflected the see-saw nature of their rivalry as European champions who confined one another to silver over 100m and 200m respectively last summer in Budapest. Simmonds got the better start and held the lead into the half-way turn by 0.12sec on 29.83. Spofforth surged out of her turn to draw level before taking the lead 20m from the title, her 1:00.52 keeping Simmonds at bay by 0.64sec, the bronze medal going to Rachel Lefley in 1:02.02.
Simmonds fell shy of the tougher target time set for those seeking second berths on the squad and must wait until the ASA national championships in June to know if she will race the 100m in China come July. Her earlier chance rests in the 200m on Friday.
Asked how much her defeat by Simmonds last year had driven her this year, Spofforth said: "It was very important, something that I've thought about quite a lot. It was redemption for last year."
It came in the wake of a period of waiting for her Green Card during which she trained in Australia and in the same pool as Simmonds in Loughborough, though not alongside her, the guest and host deliberately kept apart, the visitor placed under the guidance of coach Kevin Renshaw and not Ben Titley. "She trains more for 200m and I train for the 100m more. It was nice to be around her in the same pool, have fun and go to dinner a couple of times but ... we keep our sport separate to our friendship," said Spofforth, who had just stood with her arm around Simmonds.
The silver medallist needed no comforting. "I'm happy with that. I had a bit of a break after Commonwealths so that's where I am right now," said Simmonds, a block of intense work ahead of her with coach Ben Titley at Loughborough, Shanghai viewed as a stepping stone on the way to a home Games next year.
By then, Spofforth may have employed a psychological tool that aims to channel anger for positive outcome: Simmonds and any others who race in the lanes beside her are set to become sharks in her race pool.
Explaining the concept of creating fake emotions as a motivator, Spofforth said that "the first image that came into my brain was racing against a shark ... The feeling would be that there was evil next to me, whoever the competitor was. I was locking eyes with it and I was focusing on how it had big, sharp teeth and was ready to race me. I was joking about it at first but I thought about it later and it would be interesting to see whether it would work.”
After racing today, the world champion said she had seen no sharks in the pool. Through laughter she added: "I haven't quite got my head around that concept yet but its something that we joke about quite often."
Her intention now was to have a good audience, express her love of America and "get back to a change of stimulus training in Florida and separate myself from everything in Britain and keep my head on that instead of getting bogged down with everything going on in Britain [London 2012 in focus]."
Asked why Florida, she said: "I want to train out there, I have made a family out there, I have my work at the crisis center and I am not ready to leave yet." Her work at the center and the occasional cries for help in the night helped her to relax when the competitive pressure was on. "If you know you're having a bad day it gives you that edge to work a little bit harder because there are people out there with much bigger problems, people much worse off than yourself."
How they measure up:
Best GBR podium result at world titles: Gold, Gemma Spofforth, in a world record of 58.12 in 2009, ahead of Anastasia Zueva (RUS) and Emily Seebohm (AUS).
