Lamin Deen – “I thrive on the will to win”
Racer Ready caught up with the current occupant of the number two drivers seat in British Bobsleigh recently between two of his three times daily training sessions. Lamin Deen has just done his annual trading of kit with ex team mate, Dave Smith (now part of the GB Paralympic Rowing team) and took time out to explain a little more about the sport that currently boasts the Girls World Junior Champion yet does not have a full length track.
Deen, a serving soldier with the Grenadier Guards, has been involved in Bobsleigh since 2007 yet how did he get into the sport? “I got into Bobsleigh through the military. I was at a sprinting competition; I was quite a good 200metres sprinter. At a competition I was approached by two members of the Army Bobsleigh Team there and they asked me to come down to try it out. I went down, got selected and was put in the team. A few months later I was approached by the then performance director and asked to come down for selection for the GB Team. I went down and got into the team and I have been in the team ever since.”
Deen started out as a brakeman. To the uninitiated this is the guy (or girl in the girls sleds) who has about thirty metres to get the sled from a standing start to as fast as it can go before it leaves the grooves. Once the sled and its occupants are in the sled it is all down to the driver and his steering skills. For the rest they have to keep their head down. It is only when the driver tells the brakeman to pull the brakes in the finish straight that they are actually used.
Deen has only been driving for two years yet already he has a better feel for this rather than being the brakeman. Which does he prefer? “Driving, because you can see where you are going. There is more responsibility with it but there is also more fulfilment and you get a lot more out of it.”
What makes a good driver? “You have got to be focused 100%, physically strong, you have got to have the physical attributes and you have got to have the correct mindset and be very patient with your self,” he explains. Deen is a powerhouse. Since he switched from sprinting to bobsleigh he has put on about 20kgs he admits and later on in the evening as he trained at Crystal Palace under the guiding eye of Keith Morgan, it was evident that the weights programme was working.
It was inspiring watching Lamin along with a dozen other athletes from different sports all working to achieve the same goal in their different sports: Success. When one athlete was clean and jerking a 170 kg weight, the whole room urged him on to lift. You got the feeling that when one won, they all won. This was no spotless high street health club, this was spit and saw dust and with the Honours Board showed that it was all about hard work and getting results.
While Deen is only in his second season driving, he is already been earmarked for better things by the GB Bobsleigh’s Performance Director Gary Anderson: “he is very determined,” explained Anderson.
With Sochi 2014 on the horizon, what are Deen’s goals for this season? “This season is to compete in the two and four man. It is my first season in the four man so to develop and better myself in the four man and improve drastically in that.
Leading up to Sochi, there is the prospect of two sleds going to the next Winter Olympics, something that has not happened for a number of Olympics, does the prospect of Sochi play on the mind this year or is he focusing very much just on this season? “I want to focus on this season, get the tracks right: walk before I can run. I think that when I have this right and I have every track under my belt, that will build confidence, then I can go forward and progress to Sochi.”
Before then there is a lot of training to do on the athletics track, in the gym and visualising the courses. Deen has the driver’s eye view of the courses on his laptop and watches these at least once a week, then visualises them and then watches again. With track time limited and costly, this is the next best thing. Where is his favourite course? “St Moritz. The reason why is because it is a longer track so it gives the less experienced guys a chance to catch up. Because it is longer you can drive your time down. It is also nice and smooth and awfully quiet. It is also a natural ice track as well. It is excellent.”
Deen is powerful and yet determined. Still a serving soldier, he has not shied away from active service Does he get a lot of time off from Army work or is Bobsleigh his job? “This is my job. Up until 2014 and Sochi I am seconded to Bobsleigh. Then I go back to work.”
Is he looking forward to going back to the day job? “Yeah I am! Yes and no. I do not mind my Army work at all. It is a great place to be and it is slightly easier than Bobsleigh training believe it or not! I am fifty fifty but lets see where we are after Sochi.
How do his colleagues in the Army treat his sporting prowess? “They love it! Bobsleigh is not a highly advertised sport or watched sport so they think that it is amazing and they are always trying to find out where the next race is, when it is on TV etc, so they are very interested.”
What is more scary, being under live fire or bobsleigh? “Bobsleigh. It is the scariest thing I have ever done. That is when I was a brakeman.”
Does he thrive on this? “No. I thrive on the will to win. There is adrenaline and the danger element that we all love as bobsleighers.”
You can watch Lamin Deen on the Eurosport Online Platform this winter with a 20% discount by using the code racerready1112.
Quick questions:
Facebook or Twitter?
I have just recently got into Twitter so Twitter.
Blackberry or iPhone?
IPhone.
Coffee or tea?
Tea!
Sponsors: Road Ranger Mercedes who are sponsoring us with a vehicle this winter. I also have Sizzle Media and Manchester College who have helped us out dearly this season. And not forgetting the British Army, he is a Sergeant in the Grenadier Guards.
