DOMINIC King’s Olympic Games dreams are about to come true.
But there was heartbreak for fellow Colchester athletes Sarah Claxton and Louis Persent.
Colchester Harriers member King was announced in the Team GB list going to the Games in London after winning selection in the 50 kilometre race walk and is now set to become Britain’s first male Olympic competitor in the discipline for 12 years.
But Harriers chairman Lance Williams spotted his potential well before the selection panel.
Williams said: “I told his mum when he was ten that he and his brother would both be Commonwealth Games athletes by the time they were 21 and that at least one of them would go to the Olympics.
“Nobody believed me then, but they do now.
“I’m just so chuffed for him.
“It’s the first time that any of our athletes have been selected for the Olympics and, for a small club who started out as a jogging club 30 years ago, that’s not bad.
“It would have been perfect if both Daniel and Dominic had been going, but Daniel can look at his role with pride and think about how he has helped his brother get there as they have been putting in the miles in training in preparation for this.”
The 28-year-old Colchester Harriers member clocked four hours, six minutes and 34 seconds over 50km at a race in Slovakia in March.
Dominic’s twin brother, Daniel, wasn’t able to match him in the qualifying time frame and wasn’t selected.
Dominic’s time was inside the Olympic B-standard qualifying time of 4h 9m, though, and was enough to persuade Team GB bosses that he should be included in the team.
The athletics team announcement also brought disappointment for 100 metre hurdler Claxton and 400m runner Persent.
Despite both still holding out faint hopes of getting a place, neither had finished in the top two at the Olympic trials last month or made the A standard qualifying times in their disciplines.
Claxton was bidding to repeat the success she had in Beijing four years ago, when she made the Olympic final, but team bosses have only included Jessica Ennis and Tiffany Porter in the sprint hurdles.
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