BIG ANTI-CLIMAX AT BEDFORD

The sensational season enjoyed by Trackspeed1 so far, stalled at the Bedford International Games, on Sunday, but coach John Powell reassured that the apparently below-par performances were entirely predictable.

"You can't stay on top of your game forever," he said, "and one or two of our guys have produced some amazing runs in the last couple of weeks.  You can't maintain that mentality week in, week out, and with trials a week (juniors) and 2 weeks (Olympics) away, athletes will find it difficult to raise their game."

That said, John's comments came after a meeting held in pretty good conditions for the UK, but where not one athlete produced a sprints performance on the track of any particular note at all.

Leading performer for Trackspeed1 was Edmond Amaning, the junior who won the England Senior 200m title only seven days earlier at a rain-swept Birmingham.  He clocked an equal personal best time of 21.30s in winning his heat of the 200m, while James Ellington won the main race with a 21.14s run that was so far below par it was barely worth comment by coach or athlete afterwards.

Other results featured Julian Thomas, a Birchfield Harrier from Birmingham who has just recently decided to make the switch to London and join the Trackspeed1 clan.  He clocked 21.27s behind Ellington, but his assault on the 100m failed when cramp set in after only a few metres.

Trackspeed1 coach John Powell paid tribute to former
coach of Julian Thomas, Tony Hadley, this weekend.

"Julian I have known a very long time," said John, "and he will be a fantastic addition to the group.  I have the utmost respect for his previous coach, Tony Hadley, whom I have admired for the best part of 3 decades, and his work with Julian has been phenomenal.  If I do half as good a job I will be a seriously happy man."


All the weekend's performances will be reflected in the squad rankings, available via the home page link on this website, as of tomorrow morning.