Mark Lewis-Francis

Mark Lewis-Francis
MBE

Lewis-Francis in Osaka, 2007.
Personal information
Nationality	British (English)
Born	(1982-09-04) 4 September 1982 (age 43) Birmingham, England
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Weight	89 kg (196 lb)
Sport
Sport	Athletics
Event(s)	Sprints (100 m & 4 × 100 m relay)
Club	Birchfield Harriers
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	100 m: 10.04 s (Paris 2002) 200 m: 20.89 s (Loughborough 2010)
Medal record Men's athletics Representing  Great Britain Olympic Games 2004 Athens 4 × 100 m relay World Championships 2005 Helsinki 4 × 100 m relay 2007 Osaka 4 × 100 m relay World Indoor Championships 2001 Lisbon 60 m European Championships 2006 Gothenburg 4 × 100 m relay 2010 Barcelona 100 m Representing  England Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi 4 × 100 m relay 2010 Delhi 100 m Representing Europe Continental Cup 2006 Athens 4 × 100 m relay 2010 Split 100 m

Mark Anthony Lewis-Francis, MBE (born 4 September 1982) is a retired British track and field athlete, specifically a sprinter, who specialised in the 100 metres and was an accomplished regular of GB 4 × 100 m relay. A renowned junior, his greatest sporting achievement at senior level has been to anchor the Great Britain and Northern Ireland 4 × 100 metres relay team to a gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Individually, Lewis-Francis has won the silver medal in the 100 m at the 2010 European Athletics Championships and silver medal in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, men's 100 m final.

Lewis-Francis, a member of the Birchfield Harriers athletics club and known as the "Darlaston Dart",^{[citation needed]} burst onto the scene at an early age but did not attend the 2000 Summer Olympics, instead competing at the World Junior Championships, in which he won gold. In 2001 Lewis-Francis won a World Athletics Championships 100 m quarter-final heat in 9.97 seconds, which would have been a junior world record, but a wind gauge malfunction meant it was unratifiable.

Lewis-Francis became the British 100 metres champion after winning the British AAA Championships title at the 2002 AAA Championships^[1][2] and became Britain's top 100 m sprinter after Dwain Chambers was banned for drug use in 2003.

At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, he represented Great Britain and missed out on the final of the 100 m at the 2004 Summer Olympics, but days later ran the final leg of the 4 × 100 m relay, famously holding off former Olympic champion and world record holder Maurice Greene, allowing the Great Britain team to narrowly win in a time of 38.07 seconds. The gold medal team consisted of Lewis-Francis, Marlon Devonish, Darren Campbell and Jason Gardener.^[3] As the last of the four in both race and alphabetical order, Lewis-Francis became the fiftieth man to win a gold medal for Great Britain in Athletics at the Olympics.^{[citation needed]}

He left his home town of Birmingham in 2005 to move to Eton and train with a new coach.^{[citation needed]}

After a year out with an Achilles injury, Lewis-Francis engaged in warm weather training in California with his new coach Linford Christie. Putting a history of injuries behind him, he set his sights on making the 100 m final at the Berlin World Championships.^[4] However, he failed to make the team.

Following a late call up to the Great Britain squad, in July 2010 he won silver at the 2010 European Athletics Championships in a time of 10.18 seconds, his first major individual medal at senior level. Unfortunately, three days later in a heat of the 4 × 100 m relay, he blundered during the baton exchange that resulted in the team not making the final.^[5] Nonetheless, he was selected to represent Europe at the 2010 IAAF Continental Cup and he took the bronze medal, while European champion Christophe Lemaitre won the race.^[6] Lewis-Francis gained a second silver of the season at the 2010 Commonwealth Games: he recorded a season's best run of 10.15 seconds in the qualifiers and he ran 10.20 seconds to finish as runner-up behind Lerone Clarke in the final, having pulled himself back into contention after his starting blocks slipped.^[7]

Lewis-Francis joined the British bobsleigh team in August 2015, joining former track teammates Simeon Williamson and Joel Fearon in the team, with an aim to compete in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, whilst also hoping to be selected for the sprints at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.^[8]

• Mark Lewis-Francis at World Athletics
• Interview from The Independent