The Italian who aims to make British sprinters the best

We meet Marco Airale, the man who is guiding some of Britain’s top sprinting talent through a mixture of precision and obsession

All Marco Airale needs to see is a flash. A glimpse of something he can work with. As far as he is concerned, if an athlete can do something once, then they can do it again. He just needs to show them how.

The Italian splits coaches into one of two categories – artists and scientists. The man who is now guiding the careers of a number of Great Britain’s top sprinting talents firmly classes himself as the latter. He needs facts and evidence. He argues that his athletes do, too.

His training group, which is based in the Italian city of Padova that lies around 25 miles west of Venice, now includes a high-profile quartet of athletes at very different stages of their careers.

There is the young gun in the form of 21-year-old Jeremiah Azu, then there’s the more experienced pairing of Daryll Neita and Reece Prescod who are entering their peak years at 26 and 27 respectively.

Ama Pipi, also 27, a two-time national indoor 400m champion and part of Britain’s bronze medal winning 4x400m relay team at last year’s World Championships, is there too.

Then there’s Adam Gemili, a three-time Olympian who has been round the track more times than he would perhaps care to admit is one of their number, as well and is building for one last hurrah after recent years of controversy.

All have shown that flash and the potential to excel, says Airale. His job is to bring the big performances out of them right when it matters.

It’s a task he attacks with seemingly boundless energy. The Italian former multi-eventer, who is also a trained physio and osteopath who spent time working at the Juventus youth academy, is a particularly expressive individual. He is full of smiles and gestures, regularly jabbing the table with his index finger for emphasis during an animated chat in a Birmingham hotel.

He was there to support his athletes at the World Indoor Tour Final at the end of an indoor season which has had a purpose to serve but is not the main goal for his charges. It has unearthed some gems, though – two in particular which give him further cause to get excited.

Neita has taken great strides forward, consistently going under the 11-second mark for 100m and becoming British champion over 100m and 200m. She also took the national indoor 60m title during this indoor season during which she also took European bronze.

However, the focus on this shortest of sprints has a much bigger target in mind and it was a performance away from the championships events which got Airale particularly animated.

“With Daryll when she ran 10.90, 10.95 and 10.97 she always went through the 60m point in 7.15-7.17 and her indoor 60m PB last year was 7.11 so she was not even able to replicate the 7.11 outdoor,” he explains.

“So for me the goal for this year was getting consistency around 7.10 and maybe into 7.09.

“But then she went and ran 7.05 [at the ISTAF meeting in Berlin]. So if we can get consistency and she can go through 60m [in times under 7.10]…do the maths, crazy times are going to come.

“When 7.05 came out and I put it down on my spreadsheet and saw the time that she can run I said: ‘Oh wow. This is something crazy’. We can go from being the best in the UK to one of the best in the world. This is a game changer.”

It’s a similar story for Prescod.

“With Reece everything is new,” adds Airale of the man who arrived last October with Azu and Gemili. “Last year he ran his PB of 9.83 in Ostrava and I knew his 60m PB was 6.53.

“We didn’t work at all on his acceleration. We didn’t work at all in the blocks. We didn’t even do any speedwork and then we started to time him in training. I thought then that he could run under 6.60. He started with a 6.60 in Manchester and then 6.59 in Gent. But then 6.49 in Berlin [after a 6.54 in the heat]? No, no, no.

“If, if by any chance Reece is able to go through 60m in 6.49 and Daryll is going to run 7.05 the time we are going to see next is mad.”

It’s a big if and this is the point where the mental side of the sport – and the hardwiring of technique – comes to the fore. Prescod had looked ready to be a key challenger at the European Indoors, but came eighth. Neita took bronze but had mixed feelings about the performance, knowing she was capable of more than her run of 7.12 in the final.

However, as Airale says: “Even if it’s a flash and it’s just one time? They can replicate it. They just need to know how to replicate it. And sometimes that takes time.”

» This is an excerpt from an interview that appeared in the March issue of AW, which you can read here

The Italian who aims to make British sprinters the best appeared first on AW.