But Lewis-Francis (pictured top) believes that it would benefit the 18-year-old sprinter-cum-academy footballer with English Football League Two club Dagenham & Redbridge – to pick the Olympics because "it's a home Games, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

Gemili finished second in the Aviva Olympic trials in Birmingham on Saturday (June 23) behind Dwain Chambers but, as he already had the qualifying time, having run 10.08sec earlier in the summer, is assured of a place in Britain's team for London 2012 - if he wants it. 

Mike Afilaka, Gemili's coach, has cast doubt over whether he will allow the exciting young talent to take up the opportunity to race the likes of Usain Bolt and Tyson Gay because he fears that he will get "burned and he might never recover". 

Lewis-Francis went on the win the world junior gold at 100m in Santiago, and four years later he won Olympic gold as he anchored home the sprint relay team ahead of world record holder Maurice Greene of the United States, although he did not reach the individual final.

"I'm convinced I made the right decision," said the 29-year-old.

"Although things didn't go so well for me in the individuals, I finished up with a gold medal in the relay from the Athens Games (pictured bottom, Lewis-Francis second left).

"By the time I got to Athens you had guys like Maurice Greene and Justin Gatlin who had taken the 100m to a new level.

"But when I got the baton in my hand on the last leg, and I had Maurice alongside, I felt I had to bring it home for the other guys – Darren [Campbell], Jason [Gardener] and Marlon [Devonish]."


The European Championships will always have a special place in the heart of Lewis-Francis, as the competition was where he achieved his first major individual medal six years after his Athens flourish, when he finished with an unexpected 100m silver behind Christophe Lemaitre of France in Barcelona.

Having emerged as a shining hope in 2000, Lewis-Francis continued his upward trajectory in 2001 as he won the European Junior 100m title and then, at the World Championships in Edmonton, ran his quarter-final time in 9.97sec – which would have been a world junior record had a faulty wind gauge not made it unratifiable for record purposes.

Lewis-Francis has never gone below 10 seconds since – his legal best remains 10.04 - and while he has amassed impressive honours in the relay – as well as Olympic gold he has European relay gold from the 2006 Championships in Gothenburg, and two bronze world relay medals from Helsinki in 2005 and Osaka two years later – his individual career has been fraught with ill fortune and injury.

Two years on from Barcelona, Lewis-Francis is preparing for another vital European Championships, although in Helsinki his efforts will be focused on the sprint relay, where Britain is intent on making the most of its competitive opportunity in the Olympic Stadium.


"I'm looking forward to Helsinki, most definitely," said Lewis-Francis on the eve of the Samsung Diamond League meeting in Oslo.

"It's a great opportunity for the squad to get some vital competitive practice.

"We don't have that many meetings before the Olympics, so we need to get together and work as a team in a major event.

"Helsinki will be a chance for the less experienced members of the squad to get a feel for what goes on at a big championships."

He added: "There are a lot of things you get by competing at a major championships that you can't get any other way; there's a lot of waiting around – it can play on your nerves if you're not used to it.

"It's really good to have that experience, especially looking ahead to a home Olympics.

Lewis-Francis concluded: "European [individual] silver started a great comeback year for me in 2010.

"I went on to the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, and I got [individual 100m] silver there too.

"I'm hoping this year's Europeans is going to be just as good for me and the rest of the British team."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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