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Perri Shakes-Drayton - Hurdler


HEAD TO HEAD The Hackney Shake


Just before the Olympics in London last year, local girl and 400m hurdles runner Perri Shakes-Drayton was suddenly catapulted into the “medal contender” category following a scintillating run in the lead up to the Games. Nearly a year on, Perri spoke to us about what has changed about herself, about her training and about the place she grew up.


ow would you assess your year so far – you seem to be hitting some real form? So far, so good. Everything seems to be going well at the moment, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to get too complacent,


it’s all about looking forward to the World Championships in Russia this summer.


Have you changed anything in particular, a different type of training or preparation, perhaps?


No huge changes. It sounds like a minor thing but I now carry an orange foam roller with me everywhere I go, and then I can use this before and after training no matter where I am. I know it sounds like nothing major but it’s small, tiny details like that can sometimes really make the difference. Maybe that’s it?


Was there a huge amount of training over the winter? Yeah there was quite a bit, in fact a lot of training. Winter training is always the toughest, but also the most important part of training. Now I’m hoping all that hard work will pay off during the summer season – it looks like it might be…


always the toughest, but also the most


important part of


during the summer season


hoping all that hard work will pay off


training. Now I’m


training is Winter


How much could you train with all the snow and bad weather we had? Is it true you were shovelling your local track? Yes, that was me. I love my shovel! It’s one of those things where you just have to train, regardless of the weather, if you want to improve and succeed. I suppose it’s just unfortunate for me that there’s no indoor track at Mile End.


On refl ection, what are your feelings about your Olympic experience? I’ve had some time since, and I know that I defi nitely learnt a lot. It was a one-off experience, and the main lesson that I learnt in particular was that you can’t let external factors affect you. There is nothing that you can do to control them, so worrying about them is pretty futile.


Did expectations for last summer start a long time before that? How long do you think you were marked as a medal hope? Massive expectations came from Crystal Palace (at the London Grand Prix in 2012, Perri recorded a personal best for the 400m hurdles of 53.77, a time that put her second in the world rankings for the year). You run a quick time and it does lift


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