Now Kelly wants an open-top bus parade

14 April 2012

Kelly Holmes today told of her "total disbelief" at winning Olympic gold - and said she wanted to celebrate with an open-top bus parade.

"That I have won has just dazed me," she told the Evening Standard. "It is the best moment of my life."

Her sights are now set on the 1,500 metres, with a heat tonight and the final - and a possible gold double - on Friday.

After that, and whatever the results of the longer race, it will be time to celebrate. "The thing I have always wanted is to have an open-top bus go through my home town of Tonbridge," she said. "There are so many people there who have supported me that I want to say thank-you to. It would be brilliant."

Evening Standard columnist said she could not wait to see her friends and family to celebrate her medal.

Her mother, Pam Thomson, and dozens of relatives and friends gathered to watch the race on television in their village of Hildenborough, near Tonbridge in Kent. But Holmes, 34, said she now hoped some would come to cheer her on at the Olympic stadium when she runs in the 1,500 metres.

"It would be really nice if I was able to see them," she said. "Mum does not like flying, but it would be good to see her. I managed to speak briefly to her after the race and she just sounded so happy."

Holmes, a former Army sergeant, only decided to enter the 800 metres at the last minute - but then proceeded to snatch victory from her closest rival, Mozambique's Maria Mutola, by the tiniest of margins.

She beat her rivals across the finishing line by only a few hundredths of a second, and was so unsure of whether the official announcement. Now she is turning her attention to her best event, the 1,500 metres. "First of all I am going to have to get some rest," she said. "My toughest part is going to be focusing, but I know I can and I want to do my best."

Her victory came after a career marred by injuries which have consistently robbed her of gold medals, and seen her lose agonisingly in venues around the world.

Holmes won in Athens after an injury-free season following years of intensive training and physiotherapy. "It would be nice to go on holiday," she said. "I have not been on holiday for years, because every time I was close to finishing training, I was injured. I don't know where or what it would be, but it would be great. I would take my friends away."

Her gold medal lifted the despair hanging over the British athletics team since Paula Radcliffe crashed out of the marathon less than four miles from the end.

Holmes was cheered on by the British team from the trackside and by thousands of Union flag-waving fans who made up the majority of the crowd in the stadium. "I had a lot of support," she said. "It was fantastic. Lots of people came to the track. Most people know how passionate I am about it and it was great to see them."

Holmes, who was an Army physical training instructor before quitting to concentrate full-time on international athletics, is now poised to join the ranks of Britain's greatest Olympians.

She said her win was the culmination of a 20-year dream. "I had two ambitions - one to be an Army PT instructor, the other to win an Olympic gold medal," she said. "I had to wait so long for the second one to happen - now they have both come true."

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