Marco Librizzi (Scotland)

 

15th of March, 2006; by Larry Hickmott

Home Nations for Commonwealth Games

 

 

Scotland's sprinter Marco Librizzi was coaxed out of retirement four years ago by the likes of Chris Hoy and Craig MacLean and at the last Commonwealth Games got a taste of the sporting good life despite working full time for a living. Since then, he's continued in the sport and for this Commonwealth Games, has given it his best shot by making sacrifices to be the best he can be for Melbourne 2006.

His story really is inspirational because unlike many of the athletes here who are full time paid up GB members, Marco is spending all his holiday time from work, not to mention a lot of his savings, to put the finishing touches on the hard work he did back in Britain leading up to his departure for Oz in February.

"It's been good being with them in Perth, good atmosphere, good training bunch to be with and lots of encouragement from the riders and Shane (Sutton). It was a very positive experience."

"I have never done five weeks of this without having to work so the progression was phenomenal. The training I can do at Manchester but having the rest has made the biggest difference."

Marco then added that his preparation continued in Melbourne when they arrived around 10 days ago. The track in Melbourne he says is a lot different to Perth which he compares to Edinburgh. "It took a bit of getting used to and myself, Ross and Matt were all over the place for the first couple of flying efforts but we got it right after a while. Other than that it's a good track and dead smooth. It's like its never been used."

I also asked about morale in the Scotland camp where everyone seems to be going really well. "Its great" Marco replied. "We did some team trials the other day which proved interesting because it was very tight and I knocked out a PB for a standing lap by quite a bit, so I'm happy with that."

As for his bike problem which made the news here, Marco explained "I broke my frame and my bike here belongs to one of the World UCI School riders (this was lent to Marco by none other than former multi World Champion Fred Magne). This is one of the rider's spares and if he crashed, he'd want it back. So I have a new frame coming from France which is somewhere over the mid Atlantic".

I then took the mickey a little by saying he'd given up his Scottish citizenship in Perth after riding a test Team Sprint for England at the Grand Prix there. Marco replied smiling and in his best Scottish accent "I had a Scottish skinsuit on that day! I was supposed to ride in a GB suit but they didn't have any spare and for no money was he (Shane) getting me in an English one!"

And it will be the English and other Commonwealth nations he'll be battling with in the Sprint event for definite and perhaps the Team Sprint where selection is still to be decided. He says he's not doing the Keirin or Kilo and is crossing his fingers he can keep his form for the Team Sprint where the strongest three of the four riders available will be chosen.

 

Unlike Manchester, there are only two rides to be done instead of three which is where having a four man squad before came in handy. Asked has it been worth the sacrifices, he replies quickly by saying "Absolutely! It's great to be at a big event like this and living the life - 'living the dream' as they say even if it is only for five or six weeks. It's going to be a bit of a downer going home..."

We wish Marco all the best for his events and if anyone deserves some good luck, it's the likeable champion from Scotland.