It's day one of the European Junior Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, and Trackspeed1 sprinter David Bolarinwa has already had some great news.
Round one of the 100m, due off this morning (Thursday 21st), has been cancelled, and the 22 competitors entered will go straight to the semi-finals this afternoon. Go-time for David is 5.22pm (3.22pm UK time). A live feed on the event should be available at the European Athletics website. Eurosport are also covering the championships on Sky channels 410 and 412HD.
The draw for this afternoon's kick-off sees David in heat two, lane 2, and on paper his closest rival has a best time of 10.52s, so the inference is that he should be heading for the final tomorrow. The conditions in Tallinn, as reported by coach John Powell, who arrived yesterday, are quite challenging though:
"It is phenomenally humid here," he said, "and certainly my hotel has no air conditioning, so David will have to manage his diet and fluids very carefully.
"The absence of a first round in the 100m is terrific, but there look to be more entries for the 200m, so we can't count on the same happening in that event, and that would still mean a 100m final quickly followed by the 200m first round tomorrow (Friday) evening.
"It's a huge four days for David, but he has already experienced these sort of conditions in Singapore last year, and he is a championship performer, so let's just hope things go well."
Only one athlete has ever brought home three medals from a major junior championship, and that was Britain's Mike McFarlane in 1979 when he won the 200m and relay, and took second in the 100m. This year could see two athletes emulate that achievement with both David in the men's events, and World Junior Champion Jodie Williams in both women's sprints.
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