George Gandy has conceded that he is "at a loss" to explain why Stephen Emery has had such a good winter. Emery today ended an impressive season with a 14:44 short leg at the Midland 12 Stage Relays. Speaking from a UKA team bonding day, Gandy said "it makes no sense at all. We have thrown everything at him: weights, drill, circuits- that body isn't designed for such abuse." The Coventry Godiva star has gone from strength to strength since joining Loughborough in 2008, finishing 55th at the National Cross and enjoying a string of top ten placings in the Birmingham League. After a disappointing summer, Gandy confessed that he had written Emery off. "To be honest I forgot his name," said the self-proclaimed guru, "but then he ran unbelievably well at the Leeds Relays so I had to re-learn it."
For his part, Emery has put his success down to a "sensible" lifestyle. "I never do anything silly," said the 22 year-old, "I enjoy a glass of warm milk before bed every night and am rarely out of bed after 10pm." His meteoric rise to fame in the past six months has left some eating their words and Emery admitted that this drove him on. "I know that some people like Seb Foy and Tim Dalton have got it in for me, but that makes me be more and more sensible in training." Many have drawn parallels between Emery and Andy Baddeley's running styles, but the 3:57 man dismissed such comparisons as "insulting". "My running style is better than a lot of people think and the sooner they realise that the sooner they will get over losing all the time," stormed Emery, "Baddeley is over-rated and he has every reason to be threatened by me."
Gandy maintained that he was hopeful Emery would "make a mess" of his summer again and thus he would be able to focus on "serious athletes". "He peaked in South Africa last year and let's hope the same happens in Portugal next month," said the LSAC Director, "I'm not sure what will happen if he runs well in the summer as well." Gandy was then called away to commence some trust exercises with other UKA senior staffers. These are believed to have included pin the funding on the athlete and a new game to "randomly draw" names of athletes invited to the next altitude training trip. It is not yet known whether they were a success.