07 Dec 2017

As the Commonwealth Games approaches, Botswana’s finest 800 metre specialist, Nijel Amos aims to defend his title.

Amos won his first Commonwealth Games gold medal in 2014 in Glasgow after beating his track nemesis, Kenyan David Rudisha who was feared on track at the time.

Although the Kenyans blocked him during the final, he was helped by his training partner, South Africa’s Andre Olivier who pulled out of the way to help Amos take Rudisha head on in the final sprint and he reached the finish line first with a time of 1:45:18 while Rudisha settled for silver in 1:45:48.

Prior to the Glasgow Games, the then unknown Amos was beaten by Rudisha at the 2012 Olympic Games where he won the countrys’ first silver medal.

Ever since the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Rudisha has always been an “easy meat” for the Marobela born star athlete.  

Now, Amos is back at his training base in the United States of America where he is preparing for the April Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. 

Although some people may think that April is too far, in athletics, the period is only two weeks away from the competition given that a lot of aspects are involved for an athlete to be in a good shape to compete.

However, Amos said in an interview that he was back training for the 2018 season, adding that together with his coach, Mark Rowland they were working on his strength and conditioning.

“Training has been going well, and we are now picking up endurance step by step, and we have a few things to change. But we are not completely changing all that we have been doing, and we are just tuning where we think it will make me even a more better athlete. 

Things like my diet for recovery so that I can be able to bounce back,” he said.

Furthermore, he said their plan was to train until mid-December and break for the Christmas holidays and rest for some days with family.

He said in January, he would be camping in South Africa for altitude training, saying the whole of the Oregon Track Club middle distance runners would also be training in South Africa.

“February I will be heading to Kenya for a month then back to the USA in March to work on my speed before heading to the Gold Coast to defend my title. 

I got four titles to defend next season and I want to do all I can in my power to keep all trophies in the cabinet,” he said.

Coach Rowland said they were currently taking everything “nice and easy” at this stage, and were in the process of addressing some of the athletes development areas such as posture control and technical aspects. 

“However, this is a long term goal which will take time so we are being patient. He will continue his base work in Eugene until Christmas before returning to Botswana. 

The 800 squad will travel to South Africa for a warm weather prep camp from January 6-28 prior to Nijel going to altitude training,” he said.

He said after Kenya, the athlete would go back to the US for final preparations before the Commonwealth Games, adding that it would not be his main focus this year as they want to continue to focus on posture control and base work before the summer season. 

“However, it will help us evaluate how everything is progressing around April. 

In January, we will sit down and review how well everything is going before deciding targets for the summer,” he said. BOPA