MISSION 20-POINT - SO CLOSE!

Another lifetime best - the third this year already - took Trackspeed1-UK sprinter Jason Hussain to within a whisker of his ultimate objective for the 200 metres, at the Bedford International Games today (Sunday 31st May).

On a cold and blustery day in the Midlands, the 28-year-old Crawley AC athlete stormed home in 21.12 seconds - a time tantalisingly close to his dream of cracking the so far elusive 21-second barrier.

Jason Hussain (orange top, lane 6) dips for the line at Bedford, to
record the fastest 200 metres of his life.

There was clearly more to come as again he failed to capitalise on his start, and he tightened significantly over the final 40 metres.  He has, however, progressed impressively well already this season, and with the right conditions, the talk at Bedford was that it is literally only a matter of time before he produces that magical 20-point performance.

"It's been ten years," said coach John Powell, "and at long last he has adopted a lifestyle that has begun to unlock the talent we all knew he had.  He's lost a bit of weight, strung a decent winter together, and now is reaping the benefits, which are richly deserved."

On the same day, newly crowned Surrey Junior 400m champion, Fred Afrifa, couldn't quite emulate the form he showed at Kingston seven days earlier, but still ran a solid 49.58 seconds - his second fastest ever.

It's a critical few weeks for the 18-year-old from Croydon now though.  Next week he runs in the British League for his Crawley club, aiming to crack his 200 metres best which currently stands at 22.09, and then the following week he flies to Rieti, Italy, to take part in the domestic junior championships and European Junior Championship trials.

Fred Afrifa sets off on his 400m at Bedford

Fred's Italian nationality offers him the opportunity of competing at a major championship, whereas at present it would be a tall order to make the British team, but he will first have to decide whether to run 200m or 400m, making this coming league race a fairly critical event.

"Fred could possibly make the team as an individual if he shaves a bit off his 200m time," said John Powell, "but he is in a very strong position to claim a 4x400m relay squad place too.  If he runs the 200 and fails to qualify he may blow his chances of going to the championships at all, although I don't see that happening."

Also in action in Bedford was Trackspeed1-UK's Nathan Gilbert, who struggled in the first round of the 100m, clocking a disappointing 10.84s, but the second round saw some improvement with a 10.77s run.   It spelled consistency for the 20-year-old though, who has been ravaged by injury of late, and both athlete and coach are convinced there is far better to come as the season progresses.

FRED SENSATIONAL AS MEDALS AND PB's RAIN IN!

As County Championship medals rained in on Trackspeed1-UK athletes at the weekend, Fred Afrifa established himself as the new sensation to emerge from a squad internationally renown for converting raw talent into star quality.

The 18-year-old from Croydon stunned the crowd at the Surrey County Championships, at Kings Meadow, as he flew home in the under-20 400 metres final to a spectacular 48.61 seconds.  Not only was this the seventh fastest in the UK by any junior this year, it sliced just short of two seconds off his previous lifetime best for an event he has raced just four times in his life!

"I've been telling him for two years he is a quarter miler," said an absolutely jubilant coach, John Powell, "but I can't say I saw a time that fast coming just yet.  It was a perfectly executed race with tactics absolutely spot on!"

Fred Afrifa caused a sensation at the Surrey County
Championships clocking an incredible 48.61s to take
the under-20 title in only his fourth race ever over
the one-lap sprint.  He also took second in the 200m

Afrifa was pushed up the home straight all the way, but ended just over a tenth of a second ahead of second place to take the gold.  He joined an increasing number of his training group in various medals tables around the home counties, and added another himself with silver in the 200m 24 hours after his one-lap victory.

The Sussex sprints finals are notoriously poorly populated, but that did not deter in-form Jason Hussain to claim his umpteenth gold medals over both 100m and 200m.  On Saturday he clocked a fastest ever 21.2s 200m, albeit very slightly wind-aided with a +2.4m/s breeze behind him.

Twenty-four hours later he made it a double with a 10.9s 100m run to gold, but neither performance came without some controversy.  Both races were hand timed, a disappointing feature of the Championships at Crawley's K2 Centre, while the win in the 100m saw him obliterate the field, but he was given barely a half second margin ahead of second when video footage showed him clearly almost a second in front.

"It was very, very frustrating,"said Jason, "I had the race of my life, and I know perfectly well it was faster than 10.9.  I have no idea how they came up with that time, but there's nothing you can do now, so we move on."

Ishmael Smith-John, described by John Powell as one of his hardest working athletes over the past year, grabbed his first ever senior County medal in Ashford by taking second in the Kent 200m final.  This was despite a howling headwind that slowed everyone to significantly inferior times.  A day earlier, however, he had ripped his 100m lifetime best apart to clock 11.17s, missing out on a medal by just half of one tenth of a second!

Ishmael Smith-John took silver in the Kent 200m
final, with a lifetime's fastest 100m 24 hours earlier

"I was delighted Ishmael got a medal, and his PB in the 100m was richly deserved," said John Powell.  "He may not be among the superstars - yet - but this was just reward for some seriously hard graft throughout the winter, and I have absolutely no doubt that there is a lot more to come."

Elsewhere, Tope Nuga took silver in the Middlessex Women's 100m final, clocking 11.84, while there was an unfortunate twist of fate at the close of the Surrey event for Trackspeed1-UK's fast-improving sprinter Dean Hylton.

Cruising through the heats of the senior men's 100m, he made a poor decision to run the final despite an uncomfortable hamstring, and paid a dear penalty with a hamstring pull at the line, albeit grabbing silver in a blanket finish.  He clocked 10.94 with second to sixth covered by just  four hundredths of a second.

Training partner Oweka Wanogho took fifth in the same final, having run his fastest 200m in three years the day before clocking 21.98 to take silver.

Dean Hylton (blue/black vest) limps to second in the Surrey 100m final
with training partner Oweka Wanogho fifth (far side to left of white vest)

"Dean should not have run the final," said John Powell, "and now he will be lucky to make the British Trials in July.  It's frustrating, especially with a huge talent like him who we had down to run pretty quickly this year despite a lack of work during the winter."

Overall it was a spectacular weekend for Trackspeed1-UK athletes.  Eight medals from ten competing athletes was a pretty impressive haul, especially with most of them coming with personal best performances.

Nathan Gilbert was one of the unlucky ones, finishing fourth in the middlesex 100m final, but he clocked a fastest ever 100m in 10.70s, contesting the first race of his 2015 summer season proper after a catalogue of injury issues had seriously curtailed his winter preparations.

Medals and PB's galore during Counties weekend for Trackspeed1-UK
Top: Jason Hussain - Sussex 100m, 200m gold
Middle: Fred Afrifa - Surrey 400m gold and 200m silver
Bottom: Dean Hylton - Surrey 100m silver

JASON BRAVES THE COLD!

It was squad stalwart Jason Hussain who again grabbed the headlines at the annual Loughborough University International meeting on Sunday (17/5), as his performance topped those of the six Trackspeed1-UK athletes selected to take part.

The 28-year-old got off to a disastrous start in his 200 metre race, but recovered to trounce the rest of the field, finishing in a time of 21.32 seconds to win outright.

Stumbling out of the blocks on a bitterly cold day, with the temperature making the going far from ideal for sprints events, his bend could have been, by his own admission as well as that of his coach, "a lot better", but his surge onto the home straight, and strength in holding on over the final metres, still took him to one of the fastest times of his life.

"I know I can run under 21 seconds this year," he said afterwards, "but it was so cold, and my bend wasn't good at all this time round.

Jason Hussain - continued his outstanding
early-season form in Loughborough
despite freezing conditions

"It's frustrating, because he produced a couple of block starts during warm-up that were about the best I've ever seen from him," said coach John Powell.

It wasn't the best day at the office for the squad on this occasion, although Dean Hylton, suffering from missing months of training time during the winter, still produced the second fastest 200m of his life, finishing 6th behind training partner Hussain in the same race.

"I'm getting faster every time I race," said Dean - "trust me - I'll be putting down some times this year despite all the training I've missed, and next year - you see!"

Emmanuel Stephens had a miserable day with a poor 10.80s performance over 100m, later being forced to drop out of the England relay team due to a recurring knee problem.

The group are hoping for a sack load of medals during the coming weekend when the various county championships take place all over the country.  The main focus will be on the Surrey event, at Kings Meadow, Kingston, although some of the squad will be contesting titles in Sussex, Essex and Middlesex.

SIX OF THE BEST IN LOUGHBOROUGH

Trackspeed1-UK's extraordinary number of lifetime bests so early in the year have seen no fewer than six of the squad accepted to run in the annual Loughborough International meeting tomorrow (Sunday 18th May).

It's quite a few years since the group had so many athletes selected to take part in the opening showcase meet of the UK domestic season, reflective of the depth of talent the group have developed over the past winter months.

"We started with 29 athletes after something of an exodus over the previous 2 years," said coach John Powell, "but I knew full well we wouldn't have close to that number by the end of the winter, and sure enough we are down to about half that now, most of whom have shown well in the early weeks."

Leading the squad's charge up north will be Emmanuel Stephens, whose slightly wind-aided 10.42s 100 metre effort in the United States last month earned him a call-up to the England senior team's 4x100m relay squad for the meet.  He also contests the guest's A-race over 100m.

The meeting will open though with the women's guest A race, where Trackspeed1-UK's Tope Nuga, already in the form of her life, will look to improve her 11.67 100m windy mark also set in the States.

The personal bests set on Wednesday night also saw a late opportunity come Dean Hylton's way with a lane in the men's 100m, while the 200m charge is, not surprisingly, led by squad stalwart, Jason Hussain, who celebrates 10 years under John Powell's tutelage this year.

Jason Hussain (28) runs in the 200m
chasing another early season personal best.

Jason's 21.21s run in Gainesville, Florida, was the 28-year-old's fastest ever over the half-lap sprint, and all the signs this year are that he is capable of significantly faster.  Loughborough will be the first opportunity, especially with a lane 6 B-race draw on the day.

Also going in the 200m will be Oweka Wanogho, who is running faster now than he has in three years, while former Loughborough student Matthew Threadgold will contest the longer 400m event.

"We never aim to peak before the June/July championships," explained John Powell, "but I don't think I've got it totally wrong this year so, going by early performances, and with at least another two very talented athletes to fully recover from injury niggles, this could be a pretty good year if we play our cards right!"

IT JUST GETS BETTER AND BETTER!

It's official - Trackspeed1 UK athletes are on fire this year, with another four lifetime best marks set tonight (Wednesday May 13th), and a new England Senior International christened just for good measure!

On a night that was supposed to feature athletes competing in preparatory low-key open meetings around London, three put down fastest ever marks over 100, 200 or 400 metres, just 24 hours after Emmanuel Stephens had celebrated his first senior international call-up.

Stephens was not in action, but is lined up not only to run the 100m in the Loughborough International meeting on Sunday, but also will represent England in the 4x100m relay in the same meeting.

His preparations for that occasion will be bouyed now as he sees several of his training partners improving their best marks at what is still a very early stage of the summer outdoor season.

Arguably the best of the bunch was from Dean Hylton, who clocked a massive personal best 21.76s 200m at an open meeting in Newham, with a zero wind.  That lopped over half a second off his previous best.  The 100m also saw improvement from an existing best of 10.76 to 10.70 (wind: +2.0) and 10.74 (wind +1.2) in the heat and final respectively.

Dean Hylton posted two lifetime bests at Newham

At the same meeting Oweka Wanogho didn't quite beat his fastest ever 100m, but he did run faster than he has since 2012, clocking 10.85 (wind +2.0) and 10.82 (wind +1.2).

Meanwhile 19-year-old Ishmael Smith-John cracked his personal best over the 200 metres timing 22.41 (wind -0.2) - a performance praised by coach John Powell:

"Ish' has worked as hard as any of the squad this last few months, despite not being one of the highest profile athletes, and this is now the beginnings of a reward for that graft, and I'm delighted for him" he said.

John had spent the evening at Battersea Park witnessing the opening Rosenheim League fixture, and saw one of his squad's PB's first hand.  Despite all sorts of injury issues over recent months, Nic Baker again improved his 400m time, clocking 50.24s, and decided to celebrate 30 minutes later by winning a 200m race in 22.47s (wind -1.1).

"It was a good night," said John Powell, who has still not collated all the results around the Capital from his athletes, "it's very early in the season, but that is a positive thing as we have a lot of work yet to do in order to really produce peak performances."

In action at the Loughborough International on Sunday will be Jason Hussain (200m), Tope Nuga (100m), Emmanuel Stephens (100m and relay), Matthew Threadgold (400m) and Dean Hylton (100m).

SIX LIFETIME MARKS ALREADY!

Trackspeed1-UK athletes rightly plan their peak performances for the vital championships later in the summer so, the fact that already six lifetime bests have been posted in barely two meetings, augurs incredibly well for the rest of the 2015 season.

The early domestic fixtures continued yesterday (Saturday 9th May) with British League meetings dotted across the country, and it was at sunny Crawley that two more best ever times were posted.

Eighteen-year-old Fred Afrifa has had something of a torrid time over the last couple of seasons with injury wrecking plans, but his 200m on home soil for his Crawley AC team was his fastest yet, just a fraction over the 22-second mark with 22.08.

That was whilst being hampered by a -1.7m/s headwind though, and so if that had been reversed, he would easily have cracked the 22-second barrier for the first time.  It comes only a short while after his super debut over the longer 400m distance where he posted 50.2 - surely an indication of a shift in event in the future with a sub-50 run only a matter of time.

Jason Hussain takes over in the4x400m relay from
clubmate and training partner Fred Afrifa at Crawley.
Both posted lifetime best marks in the individual events.

Also in action in Crawley was one of the squad's most impressive performers already this year, Jason Hussain.  His fastest ever 200m in the USA last month was impressive, but this time he showed he is in the form of his life over 100m as well.  He clocked 10.65s in the A race running into a -1.7m/s wind - again an indication that he can run well down into the 10.5's without the breeze in his face!

In the 200m, Hussain was disappointed with his 21.57s into a 1.3m/s headwind, but as coach John Powell pointed out afterwards, a year ago, he would have taken that as a positive performance:

"Jason has opened up incredibly well this year," he said.  "The fact that he is this year disappointed with runs that less than 12 months ago he would have been reasonably satisfied with is an indication of how far he has progressed in the last year.  He is with out doubt good for a sub-21 second 200 metres this season - we just need decent conditions without a headwind!

Essex Ladies sprinter Tope Nuga ran faster than ever before in the USA last month too, albeit with a little wind assistance that time (11.67s over 100m) but could not reproduce that sort of form in Crawley, albeit faring well in the UK Womens League A race, clocking 12.08 into another headwind.

Tope Nuga ran well again in Crawley after
her fastest ever 100m in the USA last month

In another British League clash, Oweka Wanogho clocked his fastest time since 2012 over 100m of 10.87s, but was kicking himself after not dipping at the line, losing the race overall by one hundredth of a second!

"Oweka has much to learn about his event, but the fact that he has regained his form of 3 years ago already this year shows to me that there is lots more to come," commented John  Powell.

The next landmark event for Trackspeed1-UK athletes is Sunday May 17th when some will be invited to take part in the annual Loughborough international meeting in the East Midlands.  Already invitations have been extended to Jason Hussain (200m), Tope Nuga (100m), Emmanuel Stephens (100m) and Matthew Threadgold (400m).