Athletes are always striving to find new ways to become faster – Adam Gemili, though, has taken it several steps further by using his dissertation to investigate whether doing certain warm-up exercises helps sprinters go quicker.
So do they? “Yes they do, which is really interesting,” he says. “Although more research is needed.”
The 21-year-old is hoping for a high 2:1 from his degree in sports and exercise science at the University of East London – “but if I smash up my dissertation potentially I can take it up to a first,” he says – but increasingly he has eyes only for the track.
“I’m in very good shape,” Gemili says. “Last year I had a couple of minor injuries but I’ve not had anything this year. My plan is to open up in the 100m in May and get a personal best, and then run some 200m races before the UK trials in July.”
After that his focus will turn to the world championships in Beijing in August where he will be aiming to continue the medal success he enjoyed in Glasgow at the Commonwealth Games and in Zurich at the European championships in 2014.
Gemili shattered the 20-second barrier over 200m in winning European gold in 19.98sec and also took a 100m silver medal at the Commonwealth Games. But he has yet to break 10 seconds for 100m, something he is targeting this year.
“As a sprinter I would love to do that but as long as I can get the execution of my race good I’ll be more than happy,” he says. “I know some sprinters say that’s their be all and end all, they have to go sub- 10. But it’s about going into the championships, competing well and getting medals.
“In the Commonwealth Games last year, pretty much everyone in that final had run sub-10 but it’s whoever crosses the line first, second and third walks away with the medals.”
Gemili always seems to pull out his big performances at major championships while contemporaries struggle, something he puts down to intensive work with the psychologist Steve Peters. “I do a lot of work psychologically,” he adds. “Everyone gets nervous. If any sprinter tells you otherwise they would probably be lying. But I work hard enjoying being out there rather than getting really nervous like maybe some other people do.”
He hopes his dissertation may help him gain another small edge too. “It’s post-activation potentiation, to do with your muscles,” he explains. “And I based it around testing it on sprinters and it was actually a really good project which hopefully I can relate to myself as well.
“I worked with some sprint volunteers from Loughborough who train with Leon Baptiste. Basically it was them testing force and can you elicit more force by doing certain exercises in a warm-up.
“They weren’t quite Usain Bolt or elite athlete standard but they are highly trained athletes. I shared what I found with my coach, Steve Fudge, and the sports science guys at British Athletics. And hopefully I can start implementing some of that stuff, which will be cool.”
