"
After getting selected for the 15th Maccabian Games, the reality started to dawn on me that I had to be in the best shape of my life just to make sure I didn't come last! I also had to raise about £1650. The cab trade were very generous and between my cab shelter, accountant (R.Graham), garage (East London Taxis), The Honourable Company of Taxi drivers and Dial a Cab, it left me with less than £1000 to find. Nothing was going to stop me now.Training went very well. Times started to come down, weight came off & motivation reached new heights, especially when the kit came and I saw those Star Of David and Union flags.
My lifelong ambition has always been to represent my country and after 43 years it was really going to happen. As a 13 year old I went to the Junior Olympic trials as a swimmer. As a footballer I represented London and as a boxer 1 went to the 78 Olympic training sessions as a London Champion. Here, after all this time, I was going to do it.
We were treated as stars wherever we went. Guests of the Air Force, Holocaust Museum (utterly heart wrenching), a local village (utterly heart warming) etc. The Maccabian Games are a very high standard, ranked above the Medical, Student and Corporate Games. Past medal winners are Johan Cruff, Mark Spitz, Marc Rossman and Barry Silkman.
I went training with full time Triathletes and found with my added rest and increased form, that I was holding my own (just).Then disaster! A temporary bridge collapsed during. the opening ceremony with four Australians plunging to their deaths into the polluted River Yarkon while eighty others picked up varying degrees of injuries and we all went into a kind of shock. What happened next was incredible. The Aussies were going around cheering us up! No way were they going to allow the games to be abandoned. The triathletes came out of the situation with much credit. One, Brian, pulled six people
Jon Trevor - His dream fulfilled to represent the UK
out and refused to be taken out of that hell hole until
everyone else was taken out. Another had to double up in soccer and got The Man of the
Match award and two days later did 2.01 in the triathlon.
The facilities given to us were out of this world. Roads were coned off just
for training, accommodation was 5 star, food was unlimited and of a very high standard.
Bike mechanics were on hand most evenings for free etc.
On the race day, we had a shock as the wind got up and it was decided to
alter the swim course and make it four laps so that we didn't have to go too far out and
were all in a confined area. This had the effect of increasing the swim to 2000 meters.
Because of the delay, the temperature was already in the nineties at the start of the bike
race and later was to go over the 100 mark. I exited the water as 17th overall
and first in my age group. I left the bike park 2nd and did the ride of my
life, only one person overtaking me (he was the eventual 35-40 winner) and I was the
fastest in my category in 1 hour 6 mins.
Now there was only the 10 km race to go. I had been dreading this run as I
had developed a foot problem and could not run the day before the race. A Mexican gave me
his inner soles and with one in the right shoe I could now get round OK. I went from a
podium finish to eighth but with the Union Jack on my chest and the fact that I was the
only Brit competing, I would have crawled had I needed to. Twenty competitors, out of 300,
had to have IV's with two needing overnight hospital stays. But only two did not finish,
both due to the hellish swim.
All in all, the big games atmosphere, the friendship and the warmth of the
local people who treated us all as stars, made it the experience of a lifetime. I forgot
to mention that on our first night in Jerusalem, Tony Blair sent a fax wishing the team
well. This inspired us all, he seems to understand the importance of sport."
Congratulations Jon. I’m sure that everyone at DAC from the BOM to staff and drivers are tremendously proud of you…Ed
