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› Only if it’s Polar

Tuesday, June 22, 2010 - 00:00 Nusrat Ceesay exploded onto the athletics scene in the UK by winning her first national title in the Women’s 400m hurdles at the Aviva UK Championships in 2009. Before the race, her coach Lloyd Cowen promised to buy her a heart rate monitor if she got a personal best. “Only if it’s Polar”, she told him and used that motivation to go on and win the race. Polar discovered this after her triumphant win and through its partnership with UK Athletics decided to provide her with one instead.
She was presented with the brand new Polar RS800CX RUN at a training session at the end of last year. “I’m so happy to be receiving this monitor, it will really help me get the most out of my sessions. Training varies from day to day with different distances, times and rest periods – my Polar will allow me train at the correct intensity and monitor my progress.”
Polar caught up with Nusrat earlier this month to see how she was getting on. “I’ve become a lot better at pacing myself and better at giving my body enough time to recover. It has made me more efficient and my training a lot more effective. I’ve been able to track my improvement over the last six months which has made me more motivated, especially through the cold winter months!”
Nusrat now has her eyes firmly set on competing in London. “I’m so excited that the Games are coming to my home town. I have grown up just around the corner from where the stadium is being built, seeing it every day has been really quite inspiring. I know it’s going to be hard to qualify but I know that it will be worth it, it’s the pinnacle of any athlete’s career, and that just helps me train harder.”
With great coaches – both in the shape of Cowen and the Polar monitor strapped to her wrist – Nusrat hopes the improvement will continue and that she’ll be on the starting line in 2012.
Birmingham 11th July, 2009. Nusrat Ceesay on her way to winning the women's 400m hurdles.
Photograph: Mark Shearman.