Athletics Australia – BELIEVE: Sally Pearson launches new book

Athletics Australia are proud to support Olympic champion Sally Pearson (Qld), who today released her book Believe in association with Hardie Grant Books.

An inspirational story of aiming high, the book chronicles Pearson's rise to become the London 2012 100m hurdles gold medallist.

"It is a great honour for anybody to be offered an opportunity to tell their story like this, and we are thrilled that Sally has been provided with the chance to share her journey in this way," Rob Fildes OAM, Athletics Australia President, said.

"We wish Sally the best of luck for her book launch in Sydney today, and look forward to seeing many athletics fans out in force to share the journey with her at the upcoming book signings across the country."

For more information on book signings across Australia, please click here.

An extract from Believe by Sally Pearson

It felt like I was flying. The ease with which I was covering the hurdles was new. There was a flow that had never been there before.

I’d again started strongly and was in front of two of the best hurdlers in the world, the American duo of Lolo Jones and Danielle Carruthers. This time I was going to hold on. I just knew it.

I did.

As I crossed the line I threw my arms up in jubilation. I’d just won my first international race – but that wasn’t all that I was celebrating. The time was out of this world: 12.71.

It had been only two months since I’d broken the Australian record in Brisbane. After chasing that mark for so long I was shocked that in my next race – which was at Osaka’s Nagai Stadium in Japan – I’d sliced .21 of a second off it.

I hadn’t been expecting it because I came into the race with a badly swollen knee, which had limited my training in recent weeks. Plus I was taking on the top guns. I’d heard a lot of hype about Jones, who’d run 12.56 the previous year, and she’d certainly exuded confidence pre-race. I also knew most of the field had faster times than me coming into the race, but, importantly, I again proved to myself that I could mix it with these girls.

So if they were the best and I’d beaten them – with a bad knee – then why couldn’t I be the best? It was a question I was pretty happy to be tossing around in my head.

My winning time was the fastest in the world that year and with the World Championships back in the same stadium in just over three months’ time my goals needed some reassessing. I’d come to Osaka thinking a semi-final berth in August was about right. I left thinking I could make the final at the World Championships

This is an edited extract from Believe by Sally Pearson, published by Hardie Grant Books. RRP $39.95. Available in stores nationally. 

 

 Athletics Australia