Brilliant Osagie's GOING to the Olympics!
ANDREW Osagie simply blew his rivals away as he ensured he was the first 800m runner to qualify for the Great Britain team to make his Olympic Games debut in London in six weeks’ time.
Proudly wearing his Harlow Athletic Club vest, Osagie left the country – and millions watching live on BBC2 this evening – in no doubt that he has a great chance of winning a medal for Britain in the Olympics.
The 24-year-old romped home in first place in 1 minute 46.89 seconds, nearly a second head of second-placed Mukhtar Mohamed (1.47.52) at the Olympic Trials in Birmingham.
Osagie, from Northbrooks in Harlow, kicked on with 150 metres to go and his closest rival over the last few years, Michael Rimmer, simply could not compete his speed and power.
Delight was etched on Osagie’s face as he flicked a ‘V’ for victory sign as he crossed the line.
Osagie said afterwards: “It has been completely different this year to last year. The pressure was on Michael [Rimmer] last year, but this year it has been on me. I have had the red shirt.
“To come away with the win was the next step – to go to the Olympics. I needed to cope with the pressure and make the team.
“All you can take from these races is experience. Sometimes you have a good race, sometimes you have a bad race.
“At the moment I am learning from that. I can just put myself in the position where I can do well. This is different to any other championships. There is big pressure.”
He added: “I just want to say thank you to all my friends and family back home in Harlow. Thanks to everyone for your support.”
Osagie has enjoyed a phenomenal 2012 where he has built on his progress over the last two years.
This culminated in a bronze medal at the World Indoor Championships in Turkey earlier this year.
The former Leventhorpe School student has come in for huge praise from Olympic gold medallist Steve Ovett in recent days.
At Birmingham he was behind Welshman Warburton, but remained in second place throughout after a bumpy start when Mohamed was caught by the Harlow man and Rimmer.
Osagie went into the lead just past the halfway point.
However, it was his turn of pace with 150m to go which his rivals simply could not compete with.
He even had time to look over his shoulder yards from the home straight t tell him what everyone else already knew – that he was going to the Olympics for the first time ever.
None of the other Great Britain hopefuls in Sunday’s final had managed to crack the Olympic qualifying standard time, so Osagie is the only 800m runner that GB chiefs can say is definitely competing at Stratford in August.
* Ovett pays tribute to Osagie – see Thursday’s Star.
