Frankie goes for Olympic glory
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
FRANKIE Barton hopes his Olympic dream will come true this weekend.
The Keith and District runner’s aspiration to represent the West Indian twin islands of his birth, St Kitts and Nevis, at the London 2012 Olympics will be determined in the unlikely surroundings of Fort William this Sunday.
The two communities might be thousands of miles apart, but success in the Lochaber Marathon could clinch Barton’s place in the Olympic marathon later this year.
Barton (56) believes he can run a credible enough time in his first ever marathon to convince the islands’ Olympic committee that he is worthy of selection.
The official qualifying mark is 2hr 18min and Barton hopes if he can clock somewhere under 2hr 30min that will be good enough to persuade them he is a serious contender for a place on the team.
"I have done all the training and have no niggles or injuries. I am aiming for 2h 30m and anything better than that would be super for me at this stage," he said.
"I still have another three months training after Sunday, so 2.30 is a good target at this stage.
"I am focused on trying to get a good time and we’ll see what happens after that."
‘Barton, from Craigellachie, announced his intention last month to seek selection for the Olympics following a return visit to the island of Nevis, where he was born and brought up, before coming to the UK at the age of nine to live with his mother.
With the Olympics being held in London this year, the 10k specialist thought it was the ideal opportunity to try and realise an Olympic dream.
He opted for the marathon because at the age of 56 the qualifying mark for the 10,000 metres of 27 minutes, compared to his personal best of 31m50s, was unattainable in the time he had to step up his training.
However, Barton’s training schedule regularly involves long-distance runs and although he has never run a marathon before, he is confident of completing the distance in a fast time.
"The distance is not going to be a problem and I have that under my belt. The issue will be getting the speed right. If I don’t, I could blow up.
"The plan is to take it steady and speed up towards the end. I really need to be hitting 20 miles and then getting stronger towards the end."
Barton, a community care officer with Moray Council, has had the backing and support of Keith and District colleagues during his training.
"I did 26 miles along the Speyside Way two weekends ago with Paul Murdoch, Ross Arbuckle and Steven Taylor and I managed the distance no problem."
Murdoch believes Barton has every chance of being selected.
"Frankie is really serious about this and has been going well in training and fairly pushing himself," he said.
