The 28-year-old got off to a disastrous start in his 200 metre race, but recovered to trounce the rest of the field, finishing in a time of 21.32 seconds to win outright.
Stumbling out of the blocks on a bitterly cold day, with the temperature making the going far from ideal for sprints events, his bend could have been, by his own admission as well as that of his coach, "a lot better", but his surge onto the home straight, and strength in holding on over the final metres, still took him to one of the fastest times of his life.
"I know I can run under 21 seconds this year," he said afterwards, "but it was so cold, and my bend wasn't good at all this time round.
 |
| Jason Hussain - continued his outstanding early-season form in Loughborough despite freezing conditions |
It wasn't the best day at the office for the squad on this occasion, although Dean Hylton, suffering from missing months of training time during the winter, still produced the second fastest 200m of his life, finishing 6th behind training partner Hussain in the same race.
"I'm getting faster every time I race," said Dean - "trust me - I'll be putting down some times this year despite all the training I've missed, and next year - you see!"
Emmanuel Stephens had a miserable day with a poor 10.80s performance over 100m, later being forced to drop out of the England relay team due to a recurring knee problem.
The group are hoping for a sack load of medals during the coming weekend when the various county championships take place all over the country. The main focus will be on the Surrey event, at Kings Meadow, Kingston, although some of the squad will be contesting titles in Sussex, Essex and Middlesex.
No comments:
Post a Comment