Meeting one of my sporting heroes: Linford Christie

Being a newspaper reporter, I am very fortunate to to meet and interview various celebrities and sporting personalities every now and again.

I have enjoyed interviewing the likes of Joe Calzaghe and Jonathan Edwards over the years but the best interviewee I've ever had to date has to be Linford Christie who I spoke to earlier this week.

The Olympic gold medallist was in King's Lynn for a couple of days having brought his popular Street Athletics back to the town for the third year running and I was asked if I wanted to have a "quick chat".

On arriving at the Tuesday Market Place, Linford wasn't anywhere to be seen as the Street Athletics team frantically battled against strong gusts of wind to set up the event but after a few minutes worrying that I wasn't going to meet one of my childhood heroes, I could see a small crowd out of the corner of my eye and there he was.

After signing a few autographs and posing for pictures, I was told I could "swoop in" for our "quick chat" and the former world champion sprinter could not have been nicer - in fact we ended up talking for so long I was worried we were stopping traffic with the amount of people queuing to see him!

Having had a few tough interviews with some household names, I am always a little apprehensive before interviewing anyone famous but Linford was a breath of fresh air - so I knew he wouldn't say no to a quick picture with me when I finished asking all my questions!