BLAIR CRACKS IT AT LAST

Alex Blair (pictured), the 18-year-old 400m athlete from Blackheath and Bromley who has largely been the silent relation in Trackspeed1 to date, put down a warning to his training colleagues with a huge personal best on Sunday (26th July).

His 50.3 second effort in the national Junior League fixture at Norman Park, Bromley, added his name to the long list of lifetime bests achieved in the squad this year, cracking his previous best mark by virtually half a second.

And the gods were obviously on his side as he flew round to a 50.2 split time in the 4 x 400m relay (first leg), confirming that it is almost certainly only a matter of time before he joins that fairly elite sub-50-second class of athlete.

It came in a period where Trackspeed1 were again demonstrating that there is life in their legs yet, despite the latter stages of the season frequently prompting tired limbs after all the major championships.

Set Osho turned his hand to the speedier 200m at a mid-week Rosenheim League fixture on July 22nd, and clocked a personal best 21.58s in winning the A-race hands down. And both Savannah Echel-Thomson (25.5) and Frederica Foster (25.1) were not far off their best times in their cinderella events of 200m.

Coach John Powell was in his increasingly usual upbeat frame of mind this yhear after these most recent performances:

"We've had, and are still having a good year this year, and I don't think there's anyone who hasn't really achieved. I've now had contact with four athletes looking to come into the group this winter and, and I'm only aware of two who will be leaving, so we're already looking at a stronger group as a whole for the next 12 months, which has to be in the mutual interest of everyone. And I'm delighted for Alex - he works hard in training, and another lifetime best mark this year is the least a this charming young man deserves."

Added to the above performances, 18-year-old Jack Miller (pictured below) flew out to Portugal with the Great Britain Catholic Schools squad for the World Catholic Schools games, and ended up fourth in the 100m clocking 10.42s despite a gale force headwind.

"Jack has been beset with injury all year and the mere fact that he gotm himself into shape to get to this competition is a compliment to a very determined young man," said John Powell.