(Reuters) – London Olympics lengthy leap champion Greg Rutherford’s change to bobsleigh shouldn’t be a publicity stunt and the 34-year-old is making speedy progress in his bid to compete at subsequent 12 months’s Beijing Winter Video games, British pilot Lamin Deen stated.
Rutherford, who retired from lengthy leap competitors in 2018 as a consequence of harm, secured a spot on Britain’s bobsleigh squad final month as he seems to be to turn into the nation’s first athlete to medal at each a Summer time and Winter Olympics.
Deen is poised to steer the sled on the 2022 Winter Olympics and stated he was “gobsmacked” by Rutherford’s effort in coaching.
“At first, I used to be uncertain within the timeframe that he might make it, not simply bodily however all the pieces that comes with it,” Deen informed British media.
“Greg went to work with the coaches and inside every week he’d realized the best way to carry out in a two-man sled. I used to be gobsmacked! Normally, it takes 4 or 5 periods.
“First session he acquired it and simply stored getting higher. I assumed, ‘Wow, I’ve by no means seen something prefer it’. Individuals thought it was a publicity stunt but it surely is not.”
Rio bronze medallist Rutherford is trying to turn into the seventh athlete to medal at a Summer time and Winter Video games after Eddie Eagan, Jacob Tullin Thams, Christa Luding-Rothenburger, Clara Hughes, Lauryn Williams and Eddy Alvarez.
(Reporting by Manasi Pathak in Bengaluru; Modifying by Peter Rutherford)
