ELLINGTON FIRES INTO UK TOP TEN

Trackspeed1 sprinter James Ellington fired himself into the top ten-ranked sprinters in the UK with a blistering lifetime best 100m in Belgium yesterday (Sat 27th June). The 23-year-old clocked 10.27s with a legal wind speed, which takes him to ninth-fastest in the country this year. He lies just three hundredths of a second short of fellow Britons Rikki Fifton and Craig Pickering.

James is pictured in training earlier this year at the Disney training complex in Florida, USA.

"This was the breakthrough James has threatened for a while," said a delighted coach John Powell, "and when you consider the miserable first half of the year he has had with injury keeping him away from the track, it just goes to show how much potential he has longer term.

"I've known James ten years now, and coached him for eight, and he has always been an underestimated talent. That was underlined when he reached the World Junior final just ten weeks after tearing his hamstring back in 2004, not to mention his part in the European under-23 relay victory two years ago."

Ellington had run a very healthy season's fastest 10.44 in the heats, but switched to overdrive in the final to post his best ever mark. And as if that wasn't enough, he went on to record a winning 21.11s effort over 200m later the same afternoon.

Meanwhile, nearer home, John Powell was beginning to regret his trip north to Bedford for the under-20 and under-23 national championships as three of his four athletes crashed out in the heats of the 400m.

Frederica Foster (pictured below) had other ideas though, and survived an exceptionally tough heat to qualify for Sunday's final as a fastest loser. And 24 hours later, she turned the form book on its head to finish fifth in a lifetime's best time of 55.98s - eight tenths of a second faster than her previous best mark!

"Frederica ran a perfect tactical race," said John, "and took full advantage of lane two as she should have done. She's still under-17 and so will have learned alot about the event now, with 300's having been her main focus up until this year. She has been training really well since her exam's finished, and a pb was the least her efforts deserved."

Trackspeed1's Set Osho couldn't extend his improvement in every race this year to an eighth outing ion Austria on Saturday, as he finished second in 47.35s amid pouring rain. But that said, with eight athletes in the squad now sitting on 2009 titles, pb's or both, things are beginning to look pretty bright all round.