European Athletics – (EAA) – News – No 800 thoughts for Great Britain’s Lisa Dobriskey

Great Britain’s Lisa Dobriskey, the 2009 World Championships 1500m silver medallist, revealed last year that she was thinking about doubling up at major championships but has now decided to abandon that plan.

"I was going to run the 800m in Delhi (at the Commonwealth Games last October) but I’m not trying to do a Kelly Holmes. I’m more of an endurance runner,” said Dobriskey recently.

She believes that focussing on one event could potentially lead her to a gold medal at this year’s World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, even though there may be faster women in the field, just as there were in Berlin two years ago.

"The 1,500m is such a tactical event and it is not necessarily about being in the best physical shape but about making the right decisions at the right times.

"For that you need to sharpen your mind. One of the challenges of the 1,500m is that a lot of the races on the circuit have pacemakers whereas in championship races there is none of that,” said Dobriskey.

Dobriskey will look back on 2010 with mixed feelings.

On one hand she ran very close to her personal best and clocked 3:59.79 for 1500m at the Samsung Diamond League meeting in Paris for third place on last year’s European rankings. On the other, she finished out of the 1500m medals when coming home fourth at the European Athletics Championships.

Her season also came to a frustrating end after the Zurich Diamond League meeting on 19 August, when she suffered a slight ankle ligament problem while serving around fallen runners during the 1500m there, in which she eventually finished fourth.

She has not raced since, and gave the indoor season a miss as a precaution, but is on her way back to full fitness ahead of the summer.

Dobriskey’s ultimate goal is the gold medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, which will be just a short train ride away for her family and friends to watch her.

She is now based at the British distance running Mecca of Loughborough, where she is coached by her husband and former British international 800m runner Ricky Soos, but she hails originally from Ashford, in Kent, and still runs for the local club there.

The town is barely 100km from the London Olympic Stadium that will be the centrepiece of next year’s Olympic Games.
 
 European Athletics – (EAA) – News