Jeremiah Azu – pressure is a privilege
Last year in two weeks. Jeremiah Azu won the European and World Indoor Championships in 60 m athletics. He defends his world title this weekend. He told British Athletics writers this week that being the defending champion “brings a lot of confidence and you’ve proven to yourself that you can achieve what you believe you can. And that’s what I’ve always prided myself on, not just thinking I can do something, but actually going through and doing it. So yeah, it’s great for confidence, and I was very important for confidence. As the defending champion, it’s Friday, it’s going to be a new challenge, but I’ve always wanted to be in that position.
He added: “I think I have an advantage. I think people are trying to understand as if the oppression is going on and defending it. I think I’ve got an advantage over a lot of the competition out there. I actually went and did it.”
Winning last year gives him confidence, but certainly doesn’t make him complacent. (changing location and coach and
becoming a father), it was hard to just get the weeks and weeks together. I had zero interruptions health wise this winter as I also had a few minor injuries over the past year. So it wasn’t even just life changes. I think the injuries were probably due to life changes, naturally more stress on the body, the mind. Like your body can’t really handle the workout.
So the biggest thing this year was just getting the training done and being able to do a little more volume because we had more time. I went back last year, I think Christmas week. So it won’t be long before the indoor championships and all that will happen. But this year we had so much time, we could really sit down and have a proper plan of how we wanted to look at the year. And I think that was the biggest difference. I’ve been able to be consistent, and I think consistency is the biggest difference.”
“I’ve always said I want to put more pressure on myself. I think we had a team talk a few years ago and our team captain said “pressure is a privilege”. So I think it’s what you make of it and I think it’s great to be involved in a championship. It’s great when people talk about you. An athlete of that caliber is where I wanted my career to go, as amazing as it is, I feel like I’m in the right place.
He has two external motivations to give him extra strength: becoming a father and faith in God; “Becoming a father for the first time is difficult to explain to people. if you don’t go through with it. It completely turned my life around. And I love the person it made me.
Faith is everything to me. The discipline I get from my faith is what I use in my training because I believe I am working on a God-given talent that requires me to contribute my own talent. I can’t do it half-heartedly. I can’t present myself some days like I’m going to wake up and go into the Scriptures, like I’m going to wake up and attack the workouts. For me, they go hand in hand. I think wasted talent is one of the saddest things on earth, not just like me, I mean, in general. And I would never want to end my career and think, oh, what if I had done more here and more there. I don’t stand on the line in fear because there are things bigger than me and there are things bigger than track and field. And I think it all comes from my faith.”
There is a huge expectation on him, but he looks ready to deliver.
