Runner's World

HRH R

JUNE 2018 RUNNERSWORLD.CO.UK 027

INTERVIEW: ROB KEMP. PHOTOGRAPHS: GETTY IMAGES

‘BOBSLEIGH WAS NOTHING

LIKE I EXPECTED’

ANDREW MATTHEWS 33 SLOUGH BOBSLEIGHER

MY

RUNNING

LIFE

He had a calming influence on me. He

taught me masses including patience.

I had some great successes as a

sprinter. I was national and European

60m champion but when I went to the

trials for London I was carrying an

injury. I hurt my groin and had to pull

out. I was devastated. I’d been running

for 14 years and thought it was all over

and time to look for a new career.

if I fancied trying out for

winter-sports bobsleigh using my

That’s where my talent

for running really took of. I was

quicker than everyone else beating

other footballers to the ball and

winning the school races. I really

didn’t take running seriously until

I was in my late teens when I joined

a running club at Windsor. A coach

there gave me the confidence to

compete and I made the Team GB

squad a couple of times.

He took over my

coaching. What an inspirational guy.

CURB YOUR

ENTHUSIASM

‘Linford helped

me realise that I

was sometimes

too eager to be

the best. I’d get

frustrated too

easily. He’d rein

me in and get

me to go back

to working on

the basics.’

BIG CHANGE

Andrew was brakeman in Team

GB’s four-man bobsleigh crew

at this year’s Winter Olympics

sprint skills to push a training trolley at

a track in Bath. I was hesitant at first.

When I began bobsleigh

racing the behind-the-scenes work

put me of. It wasn’t like athletics

where you just turn up and run. We

do all the humping and dumping.

We’re constantly polishing and

maintaining the sleigh rehearsing

our start technique training and then

travelling between events.

You ’r e t h r ow n a r ou nd

turning over and over. You go into

survival mode preparing the body for

impact trying to keep yourself moving

to stop getting ice burns. That said

I had more injuries as a sprinter.

I was coaching with a guy

from GB Active. He asked me to

come along and run some fitness boot

camps which I do with other Team

GB athletes. I incorporate a lot of

plyometric and resistance work

into fun fitness sessions.