Trinidad's Renny Quow Training Hard & Expecting Good Results

“The shape I am in right now is the shape I was in getting ready for Daegu last year,” said 24 year old Renny Quow of his preparation for the outdoor season with the ultimate goal being London 2012. Quow continued, “it shows just how strong and how fast I am right now and it’s still early in the season.” Quow, the Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) product burst on the track scene as a 20 year old in 2008, making the 400m finals in Beijing and following up that performance a year later with world championship bronze in Berlin. With a personal best (PB) of 44.53 seconds in the 400m, Quow has established himself as a legitimate contender for the podium in London. However, Quow is fully aware that he will have to recapture his magical 2009 form. There is a lot at stake this year and Quow seems poised to take advantage of his opportunities. Indoor Reflections Quow has just completed a successful indoor season, winning the 600m (1:11.20) at the US Open in New York City. With an indoor personal best of 46.40 in the 400m, Quow pointed out that this PB (46.40) is not a true indicator of how fast he can go indoors since he does not focus fully on running indoors.  “If I focus on doing more 400m indoors then I know that I can reduce my [400m] personal best to 45.40,” he said. The T&T squad of LaLonde Gordon, Jereem Ricahrds, Jarrin Solomon and Quow, finished  3^rd in the 4x4 relays in a national record  time of 3.06.85  at the 2012 Istanbul World Championship. Quow sees this performance as something to build on heading into London 2012. “I think we can make the 4x4 relay finals in London,” he said. Training and Tweaking Things ”My training is going well right now. I have changed a few technical things --errors that I had made in the past-- I’m working on those right now.  I watch a lot of film of myself and I am able to see what I am doing wrong so that I can fix them,” he said. He continues, “I am doing a lot of distance work as part of my training. The past two years I did not do as well as I had expected. Looking back to 2009, I did a lot of distance running; I am trying to get back to that.  I am doing extra work so I am expecting to get good results.” Mental and Physical Preparation Quow admits that over the past few years, “I was focus but I was not as focus as I should be. I now have a psychologist who is working with me. I want to be strong physically as well as mentally.” Not many athletes have the luxury of having two quality coaches, but Quow does. Quow is coached by Blaine Wiley, his coach at South Plains College, who he said was instrumental in getting him the bronze medal in Berlin. His second coach is based in Florida. Quow emphasizes that both coaches play a significant role in his training. “I can’t leave them out,” he said Inspiration Quow’s earlier inspiration to pursue track came from long time friend and mentor Damon Douglas. “One day I saw this guy [Damon Douglas] running; he was going real fast; I wanted to do what he was doing,” said Quow. He stuck with Douglas and started asking him a lot of questions. Douglas became Quow’s best friend and his inspiration. “I am also inspired by the crowd to do well; once you have a good crowd, and I know that people are out there chanting and cheering for me, it is hard to let them down.  I do it for my fan, family and friends,” he said. Emergence of Renny Quow “I wasn’t that good as a junior, and all the people who defeated me I wanted to defeat them, so I worked hard. Even if my coach tells me to rest, and I aint tired, I continue to work hard and put in the extra time. I want to be the best,” said Quow. Quow said he is most proud of his World Junior gold medal and his Daegu bronze medal and recalled being the youngest finalist in the 400m at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. “I just have to work hard, stay focus and continue making the sacrifice to get to where I want to go.” State of the 400m The USA has always dominated track and field and with the emergence of the Caribbean athletes in recent years, Quow noted, “what Kirani [James] did last year shows that the Caribbean has a lot of talent.” Quow also pointed out that increased blood-testing has cast-out the drug cheats and has leveled the playing field. “We clean, we work hard” Quow is one of triplets, having two other brothers. “I do it for them,” he said. Quow’s quest for Olympics glory begins this weekend.