Tyrone Edgar on his struggle to reach the top

spikesmag.com caught up with British 100m sprinter Tyrone Edgar at his Los Angeles-base, where we discover a fiercely-driven independent athlete who rather likes his mum.

Okay, a quick quiz question. Who was Britain’s top male 100m sprinter at the 2008 Beijing Olympics?

If you said any of the following – Marlon Devonish, Mark Lewis-Francis, Craig Pickering or Simeon Williamson, then you would be wrong. Devonish and Lewis-Francs did not make the team, meanwhile Pickering and Williamson crashed out at the quarter-final stage. No, it was Tyrone Edgar, a muscular US-based Londoner, who achieved that honour by reaching the semi-finals of the 100m in the Bird’s Nest Stadium.

For a man who set a PB of 10.06 last season, the modest and polite Edgar certainly should have garnered a little more media attention last year. Yet there is no trace of bitterness from the 27-year-old athlete who believes he was give enough recognition.

“I don’t think I should have got a lot more recognition, I think I got my respect,” said Edgar sat on the perimeter at his training base at West LA College. The sport is tough right now and making the semi-final is cool – I was happy but not too happy because you want to make the final. Hopefully, I can make the final in Berlin.”

While every magazine and newspaper has been obsessed in their pursuit of Dwain Chambers, Edgar’s story – and this from a man who IS eligible to compete at the 2012 London Olympics – is virtually unknown.

Raised by his single mum, Rita, in Somers Town – an estate sandwiched between Camden and Euston in North London – the sprinter was the oldest of four children. He never knew his father and his mother often had to juggle several menial jobs to make ends meet. “It was kind of tough,” said Edgar of his upbringing. “But my mum brought me up well. She always put me first, always tried to put food on the table, always made sure I got to competitions and made sure I stayed away from the drugs. There was always more than a lot of temptations,” he added. “But she always said you could do better than this. She always made sure she supported us and no one else in my life can top that.”

Edgar regularly had to look after his two younger sisters as his mum was often working as a cleaner, at an old folk’s home. He even used to go along to work with his mum and two sisters and he believes his early experiences helped mould him as a person.

“I appreciate the struggle that I’ve had,” said Edgar. “When things are given to you, you don’t appreciate it and that’s why I appreciate UKA looking after me. I say there’s no harm in going through the struggle. I learned the hard way and I think it is the best way.”

Edgar, a passionate Arsenal fan, started sprinting seriously at 14 and quickly developed a reputation as one of Britain’s brightest young prospects. He enjoyed some schoolboy success and qualified for the 2000 IAAF World Junior Championships in Chile. He failed to progress beyond the second round in Santiago, but his long-standing connection with the US began on his return.

The 1984 Olympic javelin champion Tessa Sanderson had spotted Edgar’s potential and she encouraged him to pursue his future on the other side of the Atlantic. It was advice that the sprinter heeded. “I do owe her a lot,” said Edgar of Sanderson. “Her contacts helped me get to America, I really owe her a lot for being in this position – she was like a mentor to me.”

Edgar’s US odyssey began at Kansas Community College and he later switched to Texas A&M University before moving on to his current Californian-base to be coached by Darrell Smith, husband to Olympic 400m hurdles bronze medallist Natasha Danvers.

Last season proved his best to date. He recorded a new personal best of 10.06, reached the Olympic semi-finals and Smith’s contribution to the progression wins quick praise from Edgar. “We trained hard we worked on a lot of technical stuff. I had some great people to train with (including former World Indoor 60m champion Leonard Scott). Training was like competing in a Grand Prix, so when you get to a normal race it was no different to training. It took a while to get the technical work he was teaching me, but after four or five races I went from 10.25 to 10.1 and 10.0.”

For the future Edgar does not envisage a return home, so we ask him what are the main advantages to living and training in the US? “The sun,” he said, before repeating to emphasise the point, “the sun. A bad day here (for weather) is a really good day there (in the UK). All of those top sprinters at the Olympics train either in America in the sun or in the sun somewhere. What does that tell you?”