As I’m sitting here, trying not to slowly drive myself crazy; I was going through some pictures. One of then is of my hero, Marlon Devonish. Let me tell you why…
Marlon Devonish
It was early July, 2004. We were coming from Greece, just laded in the airport in London. I’d just ran close to my season’s best and personal record there. He also did well (I think he may have won). We were on a shuttle on the way to baggage claim (standing room only), and at the risk of being dramatic…”then came the moment that changed my whole life”. The car in from of us began driving erratically (later mentioned that the driver and passenger began fighting). Our driver never responded, I suppose he thought they’d get their act together by the time we got there. They didn’t, and at the last minute, our driver slammed on the brakes. The movement sent me flying into the metal rails in the window, luckily. I say luckily because if those bars weren’t there, I would’ve gone through the wind shield. I tried to be ok, but I wasn’t.
After a few minutes of lying to everyone and myself saying that I was ok, it became impossible to walk. Marlon offered to take me to a hospital, where I found out I had some bruised ribs (and minor whiplash, if ever such a thing). He stayed with me (the other athletes had long gone home), telephoned the necessary people to let them know what happened, and helped arrange for me to go home for proper treatment. On the way from the hospital, he took me to Nando’s. If you know me, then you know how I feel about Nando’s. That was huge.
Marlon didn’t get much sleep that day and a half, and he definitely didn’t have to do any of those things. In all fairness, he wasn’t the only other person there. This happened about 6 weeks before I was supposed to leave for the Olympics in Athens. I spend few days with minimal movements, then a few weeks of pool workouts, and doing every exercise that didn’t require much arm movement. When I got to Athens, I did some track workouts and tried to prepare mentally. I ran 51.33 in the first round and 51.6 in the second (if I remember correctly). I didn’t advance from there.
Usually, if I see someone I know in heavy conversation with someone else, I’d leave them; talk to them another time. Except Marlon. I must speak to him whenever I see him, no matter what he’s doing, no matter what I’m doing.
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