The Daily Telegraph from London, Greater London, England • 38

S4 sport.telegraph.co.uk Tuesday, August 3, 2004 THE DAILY TELEGRAPH sporttuesday MYSPORT Tony Ally The springboard diver in his third Olympics says he is planning to take up a career in boxing next year Earliest sporting memory: I've always remembered my early achievements. I won my first senior national championships aged 12. In the same year I represented Great Britain in Strasbourg, and beat everyone. I lost my brother when I was nine. and it gave me a great drive in life to achieve things.

It comes from within. I always felt that he was sitting on my shoulder telling me I should be out there making things happen. Losing my brother inspired me to move on in my life. I was a hyperactive child who had a talent for diving. Sports watched: I particularly like rugby and I love boxing.

It has become my second sport, and is now a big part of my life. When I have time. almost any sport can catch my eye. However, I spend so much time on my own sport. there is little time to sit and watch.

Diving is not a seasonal sport, it happens all year round. There is no time for a holiday. Sports played: Diving from a young age. and now, boxing. I used to kick-box when I was a kid, but only as training.

Two and a half years ago, I took up boxing in Sheffield at Brendan Ingle's gym, where World Boxing Organisation cruiserweight champion Johnny Nelson trains, and where former superfeatherweight world champion Naseem Hamed started. Brendan inspired me to move on. I've lost two stone since I've been training there. my body fat has gone down to almost zero and my timing. flexibility and mental focus in diving have improved.

spar with Nelson in the ring. I work hard on all aspects of it, work with the pads and the bags, and it has changed my life. I feel more self-satisfaction. more confidence, and I have been doing quite a lot of public speaking. Working with have realised how tough a sport 3 Now I'm totally concentrated on diving at the Olympics, but I aim to turn professional as a boxer by the new year.

My main concern is about still being an athlete, until my body tells me to stop. Why a life in sport, and if not, what would you have done? I would probably have ended up in jail. I was certainly no angel growing up in Catford, south-east London. Diving, having a tight discipline in my life, me realise who I am and made me a stronger, more confident, more positive person. Making it was hard, and staying at the elite level is even harder.

Since 1992, I have lived in Sheffield, sol can train at Pond's Forge. Magic moment: Being given the most digitally advanced hearing aids available. I was diagnosed with a hearing disorder when I was a kid, but because I didn't want to wear those large, ugly aids I refused to do anything about it. Before I had the hearing aids, which you can barely see, I had to rely on body language and lip-reading my coach during competition. Toughest part of your sporting life: Before the National Lottery came in for athletes, the toughest thing was trying to make ends meet.

The Lottery has been amazing for me. It has meant OLYMPIC COUNTDOWN 'Nutter' with a medal in mind INTERVIEW Melanie Marshall British hope may be short in stature but she is standing top of the world rankings By Anita Lonsbrough MARSHALL NINE years ago I asked to interview a 13-year-old who had impressed me by winning two individual gold medals at the European Youth Olympics. The youngster in question bounced into the room with the words "I'm a that was my first encounter with Melanie Marshall. What a difference those nine years have made: now she is a mature and much-improved 22-year-old who is one of Britain's swimming hopes for a medal in Athens. Marshall was encouraged to swim by her mother, who is still one of the biggest influences of her career.

Lorraine Marshall wanted her child to be strong, and as a teenager she was a tomboy who not only wore crazy hats but had interests in boxing, football and water-skiing. Her competitiveness comes from father Alan. a salesman and a league table tennis player. When Mel was eight he played her on the kitchen table. serving aces and smashing returns that forced his daughter to plead: -Dad teach me how to play first." Coming from Boston.

Lincolnshire. she did not have ideal facilities. so her training was very much a sprintorientated programme. However. continued to win medals at European junior level in the 100 metres freestyle.

backstroke and relay events. Even when she moved to Loughborough to gO to college. where she joined the university squad. and her training had increased. it was still sprint programme (at that time Loughborough did not have a 50m pool).

However. even at this stage many thought she would be much more suited to the 200m. With the influence of Bill Sweetenham. the national performance director. her own coach Ben Titley.

and the opening of the 50m pool on the university campus. Marshall decided to move up in distance in December 2002. After at the 2001 World 2002 Comdisappointments: monwealth Games, Marshall made the decision herself. realising the opportunities it offered her. Titley explains: "Mel wanted to do it.

No matter what 1 said, or what Bill said, she wanted to do it." This meant giving up her studies and increasing her training. to 60.000m. Titley admits that 55.000m a week. gradually increasing impressed with "her willingness to adapt to new things and go to levels she was scared of At list there were problems with illness "my body had to cope with the increase training." And when things got tough during training sessions. she admits: "In my mind I'm racing Franziska van Almsick and others.

The following year she was a member of the 4x200m freestyle squad finished fourth at the World Championships. as well as reaching the semifinals of the individual 200m. The big breakthrough came at the European Short-Course Championca ships in December of that year when she won the 200m. Marshall further impressed every one when swimming the 400m at the World Cup events. She added this distance to her pro gramme at the expense of the 50m Titley had looked at the world rankings and seen that the top-ranked competitors did not swim the 50 but rather the longer distance.

Marshall lowered the British mark to 4min 2.23sec to be ranked sixth in the world. All this has been about putting her under pressure for the big occasion. It has been a -year turnaround for Marshall in her personal lite as well as her swimming. She is the first to admit: "As a person I've grown up." But she still describes herself as "crazy. sensitive and As for her swimming.

she feels "there is a lot more improvement to And that it's not all about what goes on in the water. "It's what's in the mind that counts. You can prepare your mind like you prepare your body. MEDALHOPES Sexton leads a pool of talent Anita Lonsbrough, winner of gold at the 1960 Games, backs Britain's swimmers IT IS 44 years since Britain had a female swimmer who was a realistic contender for an Olympic gold medal. Katy Sexton, the world 200-metres backstroke champion, will shoulder the burden of that expectation in Athens.

In Barcelona last year, Sexton, 22, from Portsmouth, became the first British woman to win a world title. Her time of 2min 08.74sec has not been bettered since, and only Sexton and American Margaret Hoelzer, silver medallist at that World Championships, have gone under in the last two years. It is also 44 years since a British woman (Natalie Steward) won two medals at a Games, and Sexton is PICTURE: SHAUN BOTTERILL that I can train full-time and go on to a world stage with the highest expectations. Also, coming back from a motorbike accident. when I was on holiday in Italy in 1998.

which virtually destroyed all the muscles in my right arm. It was so bad that they took my forearm muscle out and regrew it. I thought my career was over. Most memorable sporting moment: There are two major moments. Seville, in 1999, coming back after the bike injury to win European gold, and being the first British diver to become European champion.

Worst sporting moment: It was great to get to the final in Sydney at the Games, but not getting a medal in the synchronised three-metre diving event with my partner, Mark Shipman, was gutting. We will come home with an Olympic medal from Athens. Favourite place you have competed, and why: The Manchester Commonwealth Games. I thrived on having my people behind me, cheering for me. I loved that atmosphere, and it worked for me and spurred me on.

Sporting event you would pay the most to see: Muhammad Ali fighting George Foreman in Zaire the Rumble in the Jungle. to miss: The Olympics in Sydney and Atlanta. I missed out on the final in Atlanta and finished 11th in the final in Sydney. On both occasions, I spent a long time thinking about it. Question asked most often by the public: Why do I dive.

And the answer? Get on the board and look down. It is a sport where practice makes perfect. Thirty per cent is in the water. 70 per cent on land. We need the right conditioning because it is one of those sports where you use everything movement and speed, with difficult shapes.

You have to be with very high muscle tonele We practise our dives in harnesses on to land the to water. before How is your sport covered in the media? Zilch. We are almost invisible, unfortunately. If you compare us to football, we do five times as much training and what we get out of it in terms of publicity and media is a joke. We train our bodies to a level most people could only dream of reaching.

Even if the national championships were recorded or televised, it would at least be recognised in a way. The ridiculous thing is that the first tickets that are sold out at the Olympics are for the diving events. People love watching them. Sporting motto: Be a rough diamond, but always be ready to have those final few edges sharpened. Who would you like to invite to dinner, and why? I have seen the scum and the high life over the years.

These days, I often get out of bed and write down five things down I am grateful for in my life. No well-known or renowned people. Just a group of interesting people who take advice and give advice, and understand each other deeply. Interview: Gareth A Davies Raring to go: Melanie Marshall hopes her dedication will be rewarded in Athens 'I can handle fourth having done my best but not fourth having done bad turns and a finish' Taste for glory: Katy Sexton with her World Championship gold several months to adjust. But at last month's ASA National Championships she looked back to her best.

While Sexton hopes for a brace of medals, Britain will also have Titley adds: she joined me she was excitable but now controls her emotions. The highs are not as high and the lows are not as low. She's more of a level headed person. Going into Athens ranked No Lin the world means nothing. as she is keen to point out: "Being ranked Nol is only on paper.

it's not a medal." This vear's Games will be her first and she's a little apprehensive. "I've talked with team-mates and others who'd been to a Games before. I'm nervous. but good nerves. not bad nerves." How will she cope with success or failure? can handle fourth having done my best.

but not fourth having done bad turns and a finish." She admits to being her own toughest competitor. -1 will never be happy until I achieve the ultimate." The perfect race and Olympic At Sit 6in. Marshall may stand some six inches shorter than many of her rivals. but she has more than made up for it with her motivation and dedication over the last two years. Titley believes: "To be the best in the world takes a certain kind of person." Let's hope Marshall is that kind of person.

But whatever happens in Athens. or any future swimming events. Marshall has already planned what she wants to do after swimming. "Swimming is an important my life now." she says. "but in the future I want to do voluntary work or be a fire worker in Australia." That is all part of the sensitive caring nature of Melanie Marshall that her opponents will not see in the 200m freestyle in Athens.

capable of that too. She won silver in the 100m backstroke in Barcelona and will go into her second Games full of expectation. Sexton came through the ranks. winning medals at the European Youth Olympics, European Juniors and a surprise gold at the 1998 Commonwealth Games. Her biggest rival has been asthma.

She has always taken adversity in her stride, though. Chris Nesbit, her coach has been "impressed with the way she dealt with adversity and In 2001, she endured frustration of a shoulder problem that left her unable to use her arms in the pool. Not to be put off, she would kick up to sakes a week soul-destroying by standard but she was determined to stay fit. Her resolve was rewarded with a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002. But her woes were not at an end: British Olympic Association doctors changed her asthma medicine and it took her body two swimmers aiming for the podium in the men's 100m breaststroke.

James Gibson, world champion for the 50m breaststroke and bronze medallist in the 100m, looked to be the favourite until perennial bridesmaid Darren Mew proved otherwise at the Olympic Trials. Mew, a finalist at the World Championships, not only beat Gibson but also broke his British and Commonwealth records. However, Mew and Gibson know they are to be in with a chance of they are going to have to go faster than before and dip under the 60-second mark. Only three swimmers have achieved that: Brendan Hansen, of the United States, Kosuke Kitajima, the Japanese double world champion, and Russia's Roman Sloudnov. At the US trials Hansen established himself as favourite with world records for both the 100m and 200m.

The men's 1500m is another event where Britain have two medal contenders. They are Graeme Smith, who won bronze in 1996. and David Davies, the new the block. Smith. for so long the British Vol.

has had to relinquish that position to Davies. The 19-year-old from Cardiff has been steered to success by Dave Haller, the coach who helped David Wilkie and Duncan Goodhew to gold. Just one British swimmer heads the world rankings: Melanie if Marshall in the 200m freestyle. a Others ranked in the top six in the world include Gregor Tait and James Goddard (both 200m backstroke), Ian Edmond (200m breaststroke), Todd Cooper (100m butterfly), Stephen Parry (200m butterfly), Rebecca Cooke (800m freestyle), Karen Lee (200m backstroke) and Georgina Lee (200m butterfly). All are capable of making their finals.

Unlike the team sent to Sydney four years ago, the 36 heading for Athens go with high expectations, and no little hope. 1.