Andy Turner’s greatest race – AW

Sprint hurdler looks back at the European Championships in Barcelona in 2010 where he proved doubters wrong by powering from behind to strike gold

The year before Barcelona, I’d had my funding cut – probably rightly so because I was rubbish at the Beijing Olympics. I campaigned to try and get back on funding but I was told I was too old and too slow to make a final – those were the words that were being used.

When you’re cut from funding, it’s not just the financial side of things. It is the fact that people just chucked me on the scrapheap and that really got to me.

I didn’t need any more fire in the belly to run well because I always gave everything in training – absolutely 100 per cent – but it just gave me a reason to prove people wrong and that’s what kept the fire burning.

On the flip side of that, I had to prove something to myself because I kept saying to myself: “I can do this, I can do that.”

I had to back myself up.

But it was a frustrating position to be in, even if I don’t think athletes should rely on funding. That’s something that I learned as I went along. I’d had injury problems where I couldn’t maintain a good stretch of training but, despite that, I knew that if I did have a good stretch, I could still run well. I didn’t feel that I’d reached my best yet.

I knew I was in good shape. I’d had a few good finishes, such as in Bergen for the European Team Championships where I ran 13.48. I had Achilles issues at this point, so I had to really try and maintain that to be able to train solidly. I would always keep on top of it.

I didn’t think I was running the times I was capable of running, though, and the training was showing me better. I just wasn’t nailing a race. And then I went to Barcelona.

What actually sparked my interest in athletics was the Olympics there in 1992 and watching Linford Christie in that stadium. I remember looking at the athletes on TV thinking that they were like superheroes, like movie stars. That they weren’t real.

That’s how it felt and it’s amazing when you can actually achieve something like that yourself. It was just magical seeing all the flashes from people’s cameras on the start line of the 100m – that’s what resonated with me and that was one of the reasons why I wanted to make it to the Olympics.

In Barcelona I ran the heat in 13.48. It felt like I had run relaxed and safe. I knew I was in good shape after that particular race and going into the…