Trackspeed1 sprinter James Ellington's season catastrophically collapsed in Geneva on Saturday as, despite clocking another lifetime best 100m time, he crashed to the deck with a hamstring tear that now stands to wreck his season.
The 24-year-old Belgrave Harrier beat a classy field including fellow Brit' Rikki Fifton to clock 10.23s with a small headwind, but as he crossed the line a searing pain in his right leg sent him crashing down, and now he will miss the European Championships in July, and needs a miracle to get him fit for October's Commonwealth Games.
"It's simply not fair," said coach John Powell, "that someone like James who has worked so hard over the years, has to take a knock-back like this. He has had no lottery funding support, and so I have no idea how we are going to afford treatment. He needs virtually daily therapy this next week or two, and that doesn't come cheap. He's a huge 2012 prospect and it's just this sort of scenario that can snuff out whole careers just like that.
"Ironically, our only real hopes are for UK Athletics to provide some sort of support, and we don't know if that can be forthcoming yet, or there is a consultant in Germany who has an outstanding track record with athletes in this position, but he costs £3000 and that sort of money simply isn't floating around.
"James is now the country's number three sprinter, and will very soon be number one - 2012 is a very big part of his longer term agenda, but this has been a very big blow indeed. We can only hope that some help is forthcoming from somewhere. James is a fighter, and he'll get back one way or the other, but the next few weeks and maybe months will be very challenging."
The one positive that Powell was able to cling to over the weekend was the return to competition after a two-week exam layoff of 16-year-old David Bolarinwa. He competed in the under-20 100m South of England Championship, at Crystal Palace, and taught his elders a stern lesson in sprinting!
In the heat David cruised to 10.95 despite a headwind, but in the semi-final, powered to a hugely impressive 10.69, the second fastest of his career, despite a headwind of over 2m/s. In the final he struck gold with 10.76 into an even stronger -3.2m/s headwind, lining him up for this weekend's national championships at under-20 level as a real contender.
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