I wish my dad was here to see this E-mail
By DANIEL LANE and DAN SILKSTONE  
The Sun-Hearld
August 23, 2009

AFTER a slight pause when asked to reveal to whom she dedicated her world champion's gold medal, Dani Samuels cleared her throat and simply said, "My dad."
Samuels, aged 21, but an infant in the ancient sport, joined Jana Pittman, Cathy Freeman, Nathan Deakes, Dmitri Markov and Rob de Castella as Australians to have triumphed at the world championships. She had a dream realised in Berlin – but there was one sad wish.
"I wish he was here to see this because I know how proud Dad would have been," she told The Sun-Herald after bettering her personal best by almost three metres to win.
"He was the person who instilled my interest in sport."
In February 2004 Mark Samuels, aged 46, was training for the Foster Ironman with four team members from the Hills Triathlon Club on the M5 in Sydney's north-west when he was hit by a truck. He later died as a result of his injuries.
His birthday was on August 16, the time of year when the major championships come around.
Samuels has now made a pact with herself to enjoy every moment of her sporting career because she believes that is what her father would have wanted.
"He is the reason why I'm so passionate about doing my athletics," she said.
Samuels needed to dig deep in Berlin's Olympic Stadium, where she was placed 10th with just one throw remaining before the bottom four finalists were eliminated and the top eight progressed to the final round.
After finishing ninth at the Beijing Olympics she vowed to never again fail to qualify for a final.
Yet, she did it the hard way. Rain sheeted across the stadium, denying her the chance to complete her long warm-up. Her warm-up throws rocketed into the side of the cage. She fouled her first throw and her second landed at 59.05m, on the edge of the cut-off mark.
Adding to her stress, Samuels couldn't find her specially weighted discus.
For two painstaking minutes the crowd watched as she searched frantically for it, and just as she started to panic, somebody pointed out it was in front of her all along.
"A blonde moment," she later laughed.
It was then she remembered the advice she'd received from her coach Dennis Knowles: "Relax."
The gold medal throw of 65.44m came in the fifth and penultimate round, after which Cuba's Yarelis Barrios grabbed the silver with 65.31m.
The Sydney University student added to her five national titles – plus a world youth (under 18) champion title, the world junior (under 20) university crown, and the Commonwealth Games bronze medal she won at age 17 – with a glittering prize that has heralded her arrival on the international stage.
"Oh, my God," she said afterwards. "I still can't believe that I threw so far. They just felt so perfect. So effortless. It shows how important technique is. Once you nail it, it comes out all by itself.
"I don't know what to say – it's just been fantastic. It's the comp of my life. I've just never felt smoother or more rhythmic in the circle. Things have come together at the right time."
Her victory was celebrated by some of Australia's top sports stars who train alongside her in the Parramatta Eels gym. Socceroo Brett Emerton called it a "triumph" and Danny Green, who won a world boxing title last week, called it "awesome". Parramatta winger Luke Burt described it as "inspiring".
Samuels, Green, the Parramatta league team and Emerton all train under strength and fitness conditioners Hayden Knowles and Craig Catterick, who have pioneered what their athletes call a revolutionary fitness regimen. Samuels said being exposed to the likes of Green four years ago changed her attitude.
"He trained so intensely," she said. "I watched him prepare for the Anthony Mundine fight and it was incredible. I thought I trained hard but he was incredible. I developed a new mindset."
The new hero of Sydney's western suburbs has performed ahead of her own expectations. She and Dennis Knowles had planned to go all out for gold at the 2012 London Olympics. While Samuels knows she'll be the hunted, she plans to use that to spur her along.
Her coach said she would only get better. "She should in her career go to at least four Olympic Games," said Knowles, who has coached Samuels since she was eight years old.
"She's already done two world championships and she could probably go to six or seven and still have hardly reached her peak.
"The longevity in throwers is very long. She's a strong young woman, but compared to nearly everyone in that field she's nowhere near their strength level. There's a lot of development to come. She has a good technique - there's room for improvement and she knows it and we work on it all the time. But it's the technique and her all-round athleticism that gets her through."
Samuels paid tribute to the role played in her success by Knowles, a man she described as "my sports psychologist, my technical trainer, my confidant, my mentor, everything".
In Sydney, Tracy Samuels, a basketball teacher at the Liverpool-based Westfield Sports High, set her alarm clock for 4am to be up to watch her daughter's crowning moment.
Along with her son Matthew, 18, and two other daughters Jamie, 23, and Casey, 15, she cheered when Dani - a 67-1 long-shot - threw a personal best to win the world title.
"I don't know if surprised is the right word," Tracy said of the win.
"She's in peak condition and throwing really well. It made me happy to see her reaction, she normally doesn't show a lot of emotion. It's amazed me."
Her eldest daughter, Jamie, plays in the WNBL for the Sydney Flames and said until Dani fell in love with the sport about seven years ago she, too, appeared destined for a career as an elite basketballer. "But we ... her Dad while he was here ... and I were happy for the children to have other interests outside of sport. However, Dani set her sights on her sport and it helped her achieve."