No fun in the sun as British athletes prepare for Berlin

From Tom Reynolds, Sportsbeat, in Monte Gordo

 “COME on girls, this is going to go in FHM.”


TOM'S GIRLS: Sportsbeat's Tom Reynolds poses with Vicky Barr, Perri Shakes-Drayton, Louise Hazel and Montell Douglas

These were the words of Great Britain heptathlete Louise Hazel, as she and three team-mates showed their playful side at their World Championship training camp in Monte Gordo, funded by team sponsor Aviva.

In my four days interviewing Britain’s Berlin-bound squad, this was the first time that any of them had to let their guard down.

Aviva stickers were stuck to the quartet’s derrieres as some of Britain’s bright young things let their hair down and posed for the camera.

It was a far cry from the rest of the athletes, who raced through their media session - press interviews, a Getty Images photo shoot and chat with the TV cameras - with a ruthless efficiency.

And at the track sessions I think I saw for why.

UK Athletics head coach Charles Van Commenee menacingly skulked around the track and in-field - a man with clearly a lot on his mind.

Peering accusingly over his black-rimmed glasses, Van Commenee’s serious side has seemed to rub off on the rest of the team. 

SERIOUS TASK: Charles Van Commenee has been charged with reviving British track and field fortunes - a job that leaves little time for light-hearted moments (Getty Images)

But I’m not so sure about it.  

I suppose that the next ten days will decide it but I tend to side with Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, who told me that– "athletes perform best when they the pressure is taken off them."

Van Commenee once told Denise Lewis that the way she should look at things is that she had never won silver, she had lost the gold – and to be fair, she did become the Olympic champion.

And that serious approach seems to have rubbed off on the whole of the team, until the pressure was lifted by Hazel.

The 23-year-old Birchfield Harrier was the ringleader as she, Montell Douglas, Perri Shakes-Drayton and Vikki Barr played up for the photographer.

They pouted, smiled and laughed. And it was a refreshing change from the serious air that pervaded the Robinson resort in the Portugese Algarve.

Don’t get me wrong, the athletes did let their guard down for small moments.  

Jeannette Kwakye teased me for making her attend her media session, when she was - "right in the middle of the episode of The Wire."

But it was Hazel again who revealed the most groundbreaking news of the week.

The motivational bed time reading that is going to turn Jessica Ennis into a world champion was Fern Britton’s autobiography.

I nearly fell off my seat. Somehow I thought it would be 'One is My Lucky Number' by Daley Thompson or something else rousing.  Something aspirational.

Fern: My Story.  Surely not.

But according to the Daily Express and Jane Clinton’s review: "The triumph of this book is its sheer warmth.

"I defy anyone to read this and ultimately not to feel buoyed with optimism."

Maybe that is what the Sheffield heptathlete is thinking and, if that is the case, then maybe Charles could do with flicking through the pages.