"The Olympics were fantastic. I have trained hard for years and to win gold was to realize a dream! My whole family was there so it was extra special," says Sanya who took the gold in 49.55, just 15 hundreths of a second ahead of the silver medallist.
Sanya lives in Austin, Texas, and trains with the legendary Clyde Hart who has previously trained, amonst others, Michael Johnson.
"Clyde is 76-years-old but keeps making sure to keep learning new things about training. He’s fantastic and a big reason as to why I’ve continued to develop."
Three in a row at 4×400 m
In London Sanya was also part of the USA’s gold winning 4x400m team that took their third straight gold. "I took the baton on the last leg with a considerable lead and ran a 49.0 which I’m happy with. I knew that we had a shot at the world record but I decided not to chance anything since we didn’t want to jeopardize a gold," says Sanya.
Moa’s aiming high
The local athlete, European 400m champion Moa Hjelmer, had only one race at the Olympics and now she’s eagerly awaiting DN Galan. "The European Championships were awesome and the Olympics gave me lots of experience. The audience gives me energy and at DN Galan I’m hoping to break my own Swedish record," says Moa.
"For the future, it’s the European Indoor Athletics Championships in Gothenburg that is my next major goal."
Jonas Hedman
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