Hence, the general rule: if Pearson gets over the barriers, she wins, taking all the famed unpredictability out of the event. Except this was the day the hurdles struck back.
Perhaps Pearson really had been spooked by an accident which occurred while warming up before her heat earlier in the afternoon. She smacked into the first hurdle and got hooked beneath the second while in full cry and then hit the deck.
She rose groggily but apparently unscathed, yet maybe it had subconsciously done untold damage as she hardly looked her dominating self in just ousting Wells in her heat by one-hundredth of a second.
After a two-hour break before the final, Pearson might have been expected to have regained her equilibrium but although she launched into her usual jet-propelled start, Wells, recent runner-up in the US trials, managed to keep even closer order this time and over the last three barriers began to push past, winning in a season’s best 12.57 sec to the Australian’s 12.59 sec.
This was some shock to the system. Pearson has looked every inch the potential marquee woman athlete of these forthcoming Games, an athlete with fantastic charisma oozing from the fearless, uncompromising style with which she attacks her event.
Only a week before, she had blasted to the year’s fastest time, 12.40 sec in Paris, and was still managing to give the impression of such manic determination that every hurdles race looks like it might be her last.
Yet, here, the familiar rat-a-tat spark over the barriers was missing.
Mysteriously. If she had just travelled over here wrapped up in a compression suit on a plane for 29 hours like Black Caviar, her sluggishness might have been understandable. But she has been training fruitfully in Tonbridge for the past month while staying with her family at her auntie’s house.
For the moment, though, Pearson’s potential headache is in stark contrast to Wells’s fairytale. The Virginian has had to overcome dreadful childhood experiences, suffering years of sustained sexual abuse from her step-father, to carve out a career at the highest level in athletics and she uses her profile to encourage other victims to come forward and share their stories.
Wells smiled, as she stood on the start line in the rain yesterday. She just thought to herself that she was on a sun-kissed beach in Aruba, proving she has even more imagination than talent! But Pearson? Evidently she was blind to her familiar yellow brick road.
London 2012: Meet Rebecca Tunney – Britain's youngest Olympian - The Guardian
As Britain's youngest, shortest and lightest Olympic athlete, Rebecca Tunney is already used to superlatives. But on 29 July, vital statistics will matter no longer as she contemplates the balance beam at the North Greenwich Arena, and begins her quest for five artistic gymnastics medals.
Tunney, the 2012 British champion, will be performing in front of 20,000 spectators, the biggest crowd of her life, but she will be undaunted. "She takes everything in her stride. She's used to big occasions and she will treat it as just another competition. She knows that she has to be ready to deliver the routine to the best of her ability," said Claire Duffy, who has coached her for five years.
Tunney is 15 years and eight months, 4ft 9ins and 5st 7lb, but her diminutive statistics bear no relation to her determination nor the sacrifices she has made to get to London 2012. "It's been worth it. This is the best experience of my life. Not many people can say they've been to an Olympics at the age of 15 so it is an achievement," she said.
Tunney and four team-mates in Britain's squad will compete in the balance beam, vault, uneven bars, floor and team events. China dominated the gymnastic medals at Beijing but the British team hope home advantage will have as strong an effect as it did for China.
In the stands at the venue (formerly the Dome), Duffy will be watching nervously. "I will be a little bit anxious because I am not by her side, but also quietly confident. She has done all her preparation really well. On the day you never know what could happen," said Duffy.
Tunney's schedule is demanding. In addition to almost a full school week, she travels for 10 hours to and from her gym and trains for 32 hours every week. On Monday and Friday, she leaves school at lunchtime to go from Manchester to the City of Liverpool gymnastic club for a seven-hour session.
Like many teens, she is a keen tweeter but it's clear her life revolves around gymnastics. Her tweets tend to say she is on her way to training or having a break from training, although the teenager occasionally emerges: "Running for a buz back the gym then figuring out its the wrong bus," went one. On the club website she lists some of her favourite things: film – Slumdog Millionaire; group – Black Eyed Peas; colour – lime green.
She hopes to emulate her favourite female gymnast, Shawn Johnson, who won a gold and three silver medals for the US at Beijing, although her coach insists her approach is not to think about medals. "All she has to do is deliver the routine to the best of her ability. Anything else that happens is a bonus," Duffy said.
Tunney has travelled a long way since she made her first journey to the City of Liverpool gymnastics club the year before the Beijing Olympics. She was taken by her mother, Pamela, who was also a gymnast in her youth. Duffy recalls the first time they met: "You could see the excitement in her eyes when she saw what the older girls were doing. She was dying to give it a go."
Her initial interest developed into a strong enthusiasm and determination to compete. "She's the type of child that is willing to try anything and then wants to be the best. She always pushes herself to do the harder routines. She is so determined," said Duffy.
Before she made the Olympic team, Tunney told reporters how she became a gymnast. "My mum did gymnastics when she was little. When she gave that up she went into swimming. She was a really good swimmer. I tried swimming, ballet and everything. I preferred gymnastics. She could see it straight away."
Tunney knows the career of a gymnast is often short but she could last until the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016. "To be honest with you, it depends on how fit I am, how many injuries I have had. See how that goes," she said. "I would like to think that I will stay on. But you never know what will happen in the future."
Tunney has been inspired by her team-mate at the Liverpool club, Beth Tweddle, who is a two-time world champion and captain of the Olympics team. "Because we train with her as well, we see how she trains and how she puts up with the bad days, how she treats the good days. It is good to watch because then we will know how to deal with it too. Obviously, she is good at it as she has won world titles," Tunney said.
City of Liverpool also provided two of the three remaining members of the British artistic gymnastic team, Hannah Whelan and Jennifer Pinches. If they are successful, there is a danger that Liverpool could be as well known for gymnastics as it is for football.
Duffy, who is also head coach at the City of Liverpool, said: "None of us ever thought we could get four girls in the Olympic team. We hope it brings more kids to the club. The young ones are so excited and it makes the prospect of competing at the Olympics so much more realistic for them."
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