SPEEDY FAWWAZ IMPRESSES AT THE PALACE

Trackspeed1 UK's English Schools international Fawwaz Okunola made a brief appearance on the indoor circuit on Wednesday (29th January) and sped past the best Crystal Palace could offer.

Fawwaz Okunola - knocked the opposition for six at Crystal Palace!

His closest rival in an indoor sprints meeting at his home track was training partner Kieran Daly, who ended up the day's number two amid a healthy field of both age-group and senior athletes taking part.

Fawwaz clocked a lifetime best 6.79s over 60 metres amid gasps from the onlooking crowd, with Kieran a strong second in 6.87 - his second fastest of the winter.

It was the fastest time of the Palace sprints series so far this season, and gave coach Joh Powell every justification for rushing back from Vienna to watch, after chaperoning an England team in the Wien international.

"That was a terrific performance," said John, "and one well worth watching.  Kieran ran well too, but identified some definite areas we need to look at, so we know for a fact he can go a lot faster, so it was really encouraging all round."

Fawwaz is now ranked 16th in the United Kingdom amid all athletes, and is the fifth fastest under-20, although he is by far the fastest born in 1997 or later, making him an exciting prospect as a potential international in the future.  Kieran is ranked 27th of nearly 1200 male athletes in the UK this year.

Trackspeed1 UK athletes by and large have opted out of the indoor season, but the signs are that preparations for outdoors are going well.  "We have a pretty diverse profile this time round," said John.  "We have a Ugandan international who is tuning up very well, and another permanent visitor from Trinidad and Tobago, not to mention an Italian Junior International."

ENGLAND CALLS FOR COACH WHILE TS1 GRAFT AWAY!

Trackspeed1 UK Head Coach John Powell has been selected as one of the coaching staff to the England team competing in an indoor international in Vienna this Tuesday.

Coaching or managing national teams of course is nothing completely new to John, but nevertheless he was delighted to get included again, especially after the challenging last few months to a year or so, where Trackspeed1 UK's profile has altered considerably.

Trackspeed1 UK Head Coach, John Powell, will fly to Vienna
with an England indoor team.

Meanwhile, his squad have largely opted to bypass the indoor competitive programme.  Although their coach has insisted they adopt a speed-based january whether competing or not, all the signs are that there will be one or two names that prove to be 'dark horses' during the 2014 summer.

Kieran Daly has been training very impressively, and duly produced a huge personal best 60 metre effort of 6.84s at Sutton in early January, and one or two of his training partners are likely to stretch their legs simply to see where they are at, during an open meeting at Crystal Palace.

The England selection for John proved a welcome boost to a coach who has enjoyed little support from on high since the 2012 London Olympics:

"I was delighted to be on the team," said John, "I'm one of the old school who still believes it to be quite an honour, and there isn't an international I've ever been to where I haven't either learned something new, or at least enjoyed some really fascinating networking with coaches from other countries.

"The group are going well in the most part this year.  there are a few whose commitment has fallen way short of what it takes, and I think they know whoi they are, but that is a personal choice.  The recent addition of Josh Swaray has been an inspiration to the younger athletes, and a challenge for me again to ensure an athlete delivers at the very top level of British sprinting."

NEW YEAR PROMISES MUCH DESPITE PALACE FLOODS!

The flooding of Crystal Palace National Sports Centre's indoor track - both during Christmas week, and just after New Year, has not deterred Trackspeed1 UK athletes from soaring into 2014 with a determined resolve!

"It was a bit of a blow to say the least," said Head Coach John Powell, "to arrive for training after Christmas to find three quarters of the indoor facility under water.  Warming up outside is far from ideal, let alone at this time of year when we aim to be speeding up.

"For so many years now we have asked for the leaky roof to be fixed, but nothing happens.  The conditions this year were exceptional, and a lot of rain water came in under the shutters which can't be helped. 

"The whole scenario simply highlights the need to invest in Crystal Palace properly which, with the budget held by current tenants 'Better' isn't going to happen.  Luckily for us we arrived to train in the morning wen there were rare blue skies and sunshine, so it wasn't so bad."

Despite the issues at the Palace, the addition of England international sprinter Josh Swaray has already been an inspiration to some of the younger set in the squad, and he has already had a personal boost with a ninth-place ranking published in the 2013 100m merit rankings for the UK. 

Josh appears ahead of established British internationals Deji Tobais, Greg Cackett and former Trackspeed1 UK sprinter James Ellington, and it is the first year he has made the published top 12..

Among the younger athletes, Fred Afrifa spent Boxing Day and the ensuing days with the Italian national squad for their youth training camp.

"We're cautiously optimistic this year," said John.  "We didn't have a great 2013 which has been the sole blip in a sensational last few years for Trackspeed1 UK, and with the bunch of athletes we have now, I think there will be one or two dark horses emerge this summer!"

Crystal Palace indoor track was unusable last week
due to flooding following heavy rain.