Jamie Staff Ready for Commonwealth Challenge
21st of February, 2006
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2006 is already proving to be almost as momentous for Jamie Staff as 2005. Then, he won a Team Sprint World title in Los Angeles before his wife presented him with a ready made family of twins. A year on, and Jamie, as well as racing as hard as ever on the track, has also been given the job of heading up the Great Britain Team's BMX programme. Before he returns to Britain to get on with that job though, there are a few things to take care of -- namely winning medals at the Commonwealth Games and World Track Championships in France.
British Cycling sent Jamie a mini interview starting with the question on what events he expects to be doing at the Commonwealth Games? "I'll be racing the Keirin (he was World Champion on the same track in 2004), the Team Sprint with Jason and Mathew Crampton and the Match Sprint. I haven't been able to train for the Kilometre and what with Jason (England), Chris and Craig (both Scotland) doing it, I feel my chances would be better at the Match Sprint. I think!"
Of all the riders in the England team, Jamie is one of the newer riders to this competition with Manchester 2002 being his first Commonwealth Games. Since bursting onto the scene in 2001, though, he's won two World Team Sprint titles and a World Keirin championship to go with his BMX championship from a decade ago. Is he at all nervous we asked? "I haven't been nervous at all" he replied. "If anything, I'm really excited about getting some sleep because as much as I love my kids, the thought of having uninterrupted sleep, except for my room mates farting, is very exciting."
Unlike the majority of the English and Scottish Sprint team who are in Australia (Perth), Jamie is still based back at home with his family in America where he lives for the moment. Asked how his preparation is going there, he replies "unfortunately I haven't been able to join the rest of the team in Oz, but I'm lucky living in California where the weather is consistently nice for the most part of the year. I have some good training partners out here who push me pretty hard, so I'm hoping my preparation for the Games will be enough to get me at least a couple of medals in something."
One thing he has lacked since his bronze medal in the Los Angeles World Cup in January, is racing but as he explained, and has shown in the past, he is able to replicate the efforts he needs to race well, in training. Jamie's next major competition is expected if all goes well, to be the Sydney World Track Cup (March 3-5) where he'll join a team from Great Britain before heading for Melbourne and the next challenge, the Commonwealth Games in the colours of England.
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