Malcolm Arnold first coached an athlete to Olympic gold 40 years ago, the 400m hurdler John Akii-Bua.
Since his latest golden hope’s near disastrous semi-final, Arnold will use all his guile to get Dai Greene into the right frame of mind to claim glory in the same event tonight.
Greene knows he has been dealt a massive get-out-of-jail free card as his lacklustre performance still saw him qualify for the final as a fastest loser, and Great Britain’s athletics captain has been handed the best possible lane available to a lucky loser, lane three.
Outside him will be defending champion Angelo Taylor, favourite Javier Culson, who is unbeaten in 2012, and Felix Sanchez, who looked superb in Greene’s semi-final, running a season’s best 47.76sec.
But the event is not about running fast in either the heats or semi-finals, a point Greene has made repeatedly for the last year or so.
Culson has struggled in the past to deliver a race-winning performance at major championships, usually seeming tired out by the rigours of the earlier rounds. Peaking at just the right time has tended to be Greene’s forte. Saying that, the way he ran on Saturday was worrying, the Welshman called it disastrous and not befitting of a world champion.
An angry Greene is not to be underestimated and he has the mental strength and coolness to block out what happened more than most.
Greene is a master technician of the discipline rather than an out-and-out speed merchant like some of his rivals. The big question is what is left in the tank as he turns that last bend of his Olympic final.
The eight finalists:
1 Felix Sanchez Dom 47.76sec
2 Javier Culson Pue 47.93
3 Angelo Taylor US 47.95
4 Jehue Gordon Tri 47.96
5 Kerron Clement US 48.12
6 Michael Tinsley US 48.18
7 Dai Greene GB 48.19
8 Leford Green Jam 48.61
Watch Greene in tonight’s men’s 400m hurdles final at 8.45pm (BBC1)
