Mark Lewis-Francis

Mark Lewis-Francis (born September 4, 1982 in Darlaston, Walsall) is an British sprinter of Jamaican descent. He is an Olympic gold medallist, having been part of the 4x100m relay team at the 2004 Summer Olympics. He is a member of the Birchfield Harriers athletics club and is also known as the Darlaston Dart.

Career

Lewis-Francis burst onto the scene at an early age, but missed the 2000 Summer Olympics, instead competing at the world junior championships, in which he won gold. Lewis-Francis became Britain's top 100m sprinter after Dwain Chambers was banned for drug use in 2003. He failed to make the final of the 100 metres sprint at the 2004 Summer Olympics, but did run the final leg of the 4x100 metres, which Great Britain narrowly won in a winning time of 38.07 seconds. The gold medal team consisted of Lewis-Francis, Marlon Devonish, Darren Campbell and Jason Gardener.These four athletes made it a total of 50 men that had won a gold medal for Great Britain in Athletics at the Olympics.

Other than Olympic and World relay success, however, he has consistently performed badly in championships.

In 2001 Lewis-Francis won his quarter-final heat in an amazing time of 9.97 seconds. This is a phenomenal time considering that he was only 18 years old at that time, but 'doubtful wind info' lowers this performance in the mind of some. No other athlete has even come close to running as fast as Lewis-Francis did as a teenager. Justin Gatlin and Asafa Powell are both exactly the same age as Lewis-Francis, yet at the time Lewis-Francis was considered the better athlete by some margin. It was considered by many that a world record was inevitable.

Yet, astonishingly, Lewis Francis has actually become slower as he has moved into his twenties. Although athletes peak around their late 20s in the sprints, Lewis-Francis seemed to peak in his late teens. He has turned down numerous invitations to train with the top sprinters like Justin Gatlin in America, and prefers to stay living in England on the grounds that he would get 'home-sick.' However he did leave his home town of Birmingham in 2005 to move to Eton and train with a new coach.

Drugs tests

Lewis-Francis tested positive for cannabis after the European Indoor Championships in Madrid, Spain on 5 March, 2005, and was stripped of the silver medal he won at that event. According to the British Olympic Association (BOA) rules, this rendered him ineligible for selection to future Olympic Games. In 2006, UK Athletics, the governing body of Athletics in the UK, accepted that cannabis had not been taken to enhance performance, and the BOA cleared him to compete in future games. In December 2007, after the Christine Ohuruogu affair, Lewis-Francis was one of three British athletes to come out and state that they had missed two drugs tests.

See also

• List of sportspeople sanctioned for doping offences

References

External links