With Sunday’s news that Daniel Dixon will be the athlete selected to replace the injured Jonny Brownlee in the Team England squad for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, the TRI247 columnist tells us about his pride at the opportunity.
Proud and surreal
It’s honestly a really, really special feeling getting selected to compete for Team England, the home nation at a home Games, at 20 years old. It doesn’t get more special than that.
I think coming in at later notice too, it’s all come so fast that it all feels a little bit surreal. Especially when I’m up here in rural Northumberland, relatively far removed from a lot of the things. It’s just really, really made me quite proud.
I’ve done the sport for 11 years now and done an awful lot in that time, but I chose to stay at home and try and make it on my own accord in the sport and do it my own way, find my own path through the sport. It just shows that has paid off. There’s an awful lot of water to flow under the bridge yet as my Dad would say, but it’s certainly a really big step in the right direction.
I’m really looking forward to competing at the Games and I think that at 20, I’ve got to make use of every single bit of the experience. I don’t know what to say really – which for me is quite strange!
Gutted for Jonny
I think the main thing is that I also want to say that I’m pretty gutted for Jonny. It would have been an absolute pleasure to join Jonny on the team and obviously it is always fab to see him racing and so I want to send him a message for a speedy recovery.
On the whole, this opportunity is huge for me. I cannot thank those enough around me, the team – family, friends, practitioners, coaches – without them this opportunity wouldn’t have been possible in the first place, so the biggest thanks has to go to them.
It’s all a bit surreal – hopefully next week after the kitting out and everything else it will start to feel a little bit more real. Massive, massive pride in being selected. I just can’t wait.
