Double gold for Miller at Special Olympics
Graham Gibson • Published 8 Jul 2011 08:50
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DUNFERMLINE runner Owen Miller climbed out of his sick bed to win double gold at the Special Olympics World Summer Games.
It was almost a Greek tragedy for the former Woodmill High pupil when he was struck down by a mystery illness after the opening ceremony.
Miller was on a drip until the day before his first race and mum Wendy was told he wouldn't be able to perform in his first heat of the games in Athens.
However, she was stunned to receive an early morning phone call from her son the next day to say he was already on his way to the stadium for his race.
Wendy told Press Sport, "Owen had become quite ill, he was vomiting and was on a drip. I got a phone call to say they didn't think he was going to do his race the next day.
"Then he phoned me the next morning and said, "Hi mum I'm sitting on a bus and I'm going to go do my race." You couldn't ask for any better than that and he was very brave."
Miller, a member of Dunfermline and West Fife Athletics Club, where he is coached by Wendy Nicol, took home his first gold in the 800 metres in a time of 2 minutes 5 seconds, just missing out on a personal best at the imposing Olympic Stadium in the Greek capital.
The 19-year-old, of MacBeth Road, then followed that up with victory in the 1500m in 4:29 and a silver in the 4x400m.
Proud mum Wendy was completely overjoyed by his performance especially as she had to rely on phone calls to discover how he had performed.
"Because I wasn't there I couldn't tell him how to run his race.
"I was having to get him to phone me in the morning before his race so I could remind him to do this and do that.
"Sometimes the adrenaline takes over and he just goes and burns himself out too quickly so it was just fantastic to hear he had won the gold medals."
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