BOLARINWA WINS TITLE THRILLER

Trackspeed1 superkid David Bolarinwa won the most thrilling 100m national championship final ever to retain the 100m under-20 title he won last year.


The only Briton to win an under-20 title aged 16 (last year) retained it in the most dramatic of circumstances as he edged out Blackheath's Adam Gemili by literally thousandths of a second at the line.

The gusting wind had played havoc with times in the rounds with Gemili getting the better of the clock, but David was biding his time.  That said, his wind legal 10.38s in the semi-final was impressive to say the least as he coasted through the tape.

David Bolarinwa on top of the rostrum again after
retaining his England under-20 100m title

Gemili, who is on Dagenham and Redbridge FC's books, probably paid the price of lack of experience to Bolarinwa, as he dipped for the line early in desperation at David's solid pick-up and finish.  Both clocked 10.23s but were separated on thousandths of a second to decide the medals.

"It was an excellent race," said a proud coach John Powell, "it was always going to be a thriller, and it lived up to that.  I had told David that he simply had to hold his form at the end and that should be enough. Both were given the same time of 10.23, but David can be seen to hit the line first when you replay the film.  I was surprised they weren't separated by a hundredth or two."

On the same day and in the same event, Trackspeed1's Kieran Daly shattered his personal best in the semi-final to record a wind-legal 10.85, finishing fourth behind training companion David.  It was the first time he had notched up a sub-11 second mark.

The official photo-finish of the 100m thriller!

In the 400m Matt Threadgold didn't give himself the greatest start to the championships arriving just ten minutes before his final report time for the heats.  However, he ran well from lane 8 and qualified for the semi's in third place, but failed to progress further.