Event: 50km walk.
Who is he? The 29-year-old Leitrim native trains for his gruelling endurance races between his home in Ballinamore and Italy. Currently, he’s altitude training in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Road to London: He was on course for qualification at last year’s World Championships in Daegu. However, after 30km on the go, he was disqualified by some ultra-stringent officiating and so had to wait until May’s World Cup.
In Saransk, he teetered on the edge of a third DQ inside a year, but kept his composure to finish 15th with a time of three hours, 52 minutes, 54 seconds. That’s a full seven minutes inside the A standard.
What he says about himself: In his blog he writes: “My confidence and reputation took a huge hit over the years since then as a result of events, but I have it back now and hope to build and capitalize on it. I am not getting too far ahead of myself though. Experience tells me that you are only as good as your last race and I’m acutely aware that one or two bad performances could knock me back to where I had been.”
What they’re saying on the internet: “Griffin was over five minutes inside the standard and placed 15th in the World Cup in very testing conditions - how many Irish athletes would place that highly?” SeanKenny (Boards.ie)
Medal chances: Griffin’s personal best of 3:51.32 is 13 minutes shy of the world leader this year, but in a race of this distance with such a high level of technique involved, anything can happen.
His 15th place in the World Cup was achieved in searing heat with humidity almost touching 50%. London will be much closer to what he’s accustomed to and, as long as he stays out of the judge’s eye, he’ll be challenging for a top 10 spot.
Jimmy says: Two.
On the Twitter: You’ll find him @ColinGriffin but if you have inadequacy issues don’t follow him.
YouTube credit: jatomy
