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Exclusive by Alex Hoad
Teenage British sprint star Adam Gemili insists he doesn’t feel any pressure on him to win a medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The 18-year-old Dartford ace has shot to prominence in the past month after becoming the second fastest European this year with a blistering personal best time of 10.08secs at a meeting in Germany.
The time has brought fame and expectation, but Gemili lived up to the hype by securing a fairytale top-two finish at the British Olympic Trials in Birmingham last month to earn his place in TeamGB for the Olympics. To add to his joy, Gemili was named in the 4x100m relay squad this week.
"Now I just want to go out and enjoy it – it’s the Olympic Games," he said. "It’s a great experience for anyone to be a part of. It’s a wonderful opportunity and I am excited about it.
"I just want to go and perform and hopefully people will just be happy that I’m there. There won’t be any pressure on me to make a final or win a medal or anything."
Gemili will jet out to Spain this weekend ahead of the World Junior Championships in the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, which runs from Tuesday to July 15.
Gemili said: "I fly out to Barcelona on Saturday and I want to get in a good block of training before then.
"I have been training intensely for the past few weeks and months so I’m used to it now. I’m going to keep things the same, having got to this position I don’t want to change too much."
He revealed: "The European Junior Championships (where Gemili claimed a silver medal) last year was a great experience for me and I can only imagine that the World Juniors will be double that.
"It’s going to be great to have that experience just before going to the Olympics.
"I’ll do my best in Barcelona and try to compete. I just want to perform as well as I can, and then I want to go into the Olympics and perform there too."
He is hopeful of receiving plenty of support at the Games, revealing: "It’s special to have an Olympics so close to home and a lot of my friends have got tickets.
"We applied for tickets but we didn’t get a thing. Hopefully we’ll be able to find one or two spares for my mum and dad."
How do you expect Gemili to do at the Olympic Games? Have your say below.