10:25am Wednesday 27th August 2008
Olympic hopeful Torema Dorsett helped raise the flag for Britain on Sunday at a special ceremony to mark the official handover of the games to London.
The 18-year-old sprint star from Bounds Green joined the Mayor of Haringey, Councillor Alan Dobbie and council leader George Meehan outside Wood Green Central Library in High Road.
Torema said: "It was such an honour to be asked. It’s nice to know people acknowldege it when you’re doing something exciting."
The 100 metre runner has already run over half a second outside the women’s 2008 Olympics qualfiying time and took silver for the UK in last year’s European Youth Olympics.
But now her sights are firmly set on bringing home a gold medal for Great Britain in 2012.
"Getting to the Olympics would be amazing," she said.
"It was other people’s dream before mine, but in the last two years it has become my dream too."
Torema has always been athletic. She was competing in gymnastics at the age of six before taking up running at 12.
The sprinting sensation said: "I did every sport I could at school and when I was 12 I joined the Haringey and Enfield running club.
"I started off doing one or two races in the under 13’s and ended up becoming number one."
At 13 she was hand-picked by the English School Athletics Organisation to compete on a national level.
In 2006 Torema set a personal best of 11.69 seconds for the 100 metre sprint at the European Youth Olympics.
Torema, who who got two As and two Bs in her A-levels, is off to the University of Hertfordshire to take up a degree in Maths and Spanish.
This means she will be training on a part-time basis but with the help of her two coaches, Leslie Mars and Frank Adams, she will increase her training sessions from four to five times a week.
She said: "It is difficult to train and study at the same time. During exam time I don't run as well as I could — something has to suffer — but when my exams are finished my performance goes up again.
"Sometimes I feel like I need a rest but it will all be worth it in the end."
Inspired by Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt's record-breaking performance, Torema hopes to enjoy similar success.
She said: "I aim to be like him. He was tipped to do well and he lived up to the expectations- that’s what I want to do.
"When I finish university in 2011 it will give me a whole year to prepare for the games and you haven’t seen the best of me yet.
"To win an Olympic gold is the pinnacle, it’s as high as you can go and to win would just be amazing. It’s definitely what I’m aiming for."
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