Track and Field Blogs - Francis Coral - Mellon

I will be down at the Bird's Nest tomorrow night, the nerves will grip me as I settle into position, eyes and arms at the ready. The race starts and I stand up in anticipation not as an athlete but as a spectator observing the action, in one of the world's greatest sporting events.

In a long journey that involved time in Kenya mingling with some of the greatest distance athletes in history while creating a documentary that still hasn't come to fruition, who would have thought that 4 months later I would be watching some of those athletes at the Beijing Olympics.

In anticipation of tomorrow's 1500m final, I will probably be rooting for Asbel Kiprop to come through for Kenya. The young phenom at 19 years old has been looking great and has the speed to carry himself through to a medal. Hopefully I can meet up with him afterwards and he will remember me from the races in Iten. I remember asking him what his time goal was for this year was and he told me quite humbly, "3.31 would be nice", then thinking for a moment he repeats "3.31 or 3.32". He achieves that goal of 3.31 in Europe and is going into the final as one of the most dangerous athletes because coming 4th last year at the world championships he had little experience and much slower times than this year. Other contenders are Augustine Choge, Rashid Ramzi, Nick Willis and others.

So in other words I am very excited and I want to thank Flotrack and Ludus Track and Field tours once again for giving me the opportunity to be here.