British sprinter James Dasaolu says he does not fear Usain Bolt ahead of the Olympic 100m competition.
The world record-holding Jamaican, 29, will be aiming to win his seventh gold medal when the final is held late on Sunday.
It is the first event in Bolt’s attempt in Rio to achieve an unprecedented triple by winning gold in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay for the third Olympic Games in a row.
Dasaolu, 28, who grew up in Croydon, told the Standard: “With Bolt it’s always an honour to run against him because he’s the quickest guy in history and probably one of the greatest ever guys to do the sport.
“But I tend not to ever focus on whatever’s around me — all you can do is focus on you and yourself and that’s how I take every race.”
He added: “We want to compete against the quickest and fastest guys in the world, you want to be at the top of your sport and your game... but the focus is always on myself and executing the best race I can do.” Dasaolu, a father of two, said he will be running the 100m for his family. “I have two girls who watch me now, they’re seven or three and know now if I finish second or third or whatever,” he said.
Fellow 100m sprinter James Ellington, also a Londoner, told the Standard how running helped save him from getting involved in “the wrong crowd” when living in the city as a teenager.
He said: “There’s always distractions but luckily my mum was focused on keeping me on the straight and narrow and I could have easily gone down that route — some of friends got into trouble with the police and never got out of that rut.”
He added: “There’s so much talent in London that goes unnoticed or gets wasted or they go down the wrong path.”
Ellington, 30, called for more funding for sport. He said: “There’s such a massive population out there and I’m all for the funding initiatives that can rein in or young talent and put them on a straight and narrow path.
“I think the buck does kind of start with the Government ... it makes sense because the kids are our future and I don’t think there can ever be enough money pumped into our future.”
