The sweat pours wistfully from your brow

and like many before you,

Thompson backflip, Coe eminence,

Ovett working class maverick, Wells

my hero at the age of nine, dipping head

on the line, Lyndon Davies grace in the air,

sand undisturbed, Sean Kerly, an honour

to have met before he won Gold,

David Wilkie years after he became an icon,

Steve Redgrave, Linford Christie, Matthew Pinsett,

ninety six disappointment, crushed memories,

weightless and unimpressed, my own failure

at the heart of it…

Kelly Holmes resurgent, beautiful, bold and a queen