My Mother is Still My Driving Force. - Ene Franca Idoko

It's not so easy because it's just like when you are in school trying to read and pass your exams without lagging behind. Every year new people come out in athletics so I just have to train hard and see who comes out this year. I ran well in 2008 and I hope to do the same this year (2010). I know it's not going to be easy but I have to come back to it, to tell myself I can do it.

I used to watch every competition on Skysports to see the times athletes are running and to see if the times aren't above what I can run. They ran well last year but nobody really ran fast among the Nigerian women, unlike in 2008 when I was running. That year Damola ran 11.08 seconds which was really very fast but the fastest last year was 11.16 seconds. It was good but what they were running in Europe, America and Jamaica was faster; they were giving us time to follow because Carmelita Jeter of the US ran 10.6 which was very fast. The Africans didn't do so well but at least we are following up.

If you leave athletics, it leaves you. I was getting lazy because this is the build up period from September to December but so far so good, everything has been so good. I have a coach in Germany by the name of Frank Duka that prepares a programme for me. We have a coach in Nigeria that we use whenever we are around too.