WIND-UP OF THE YEAR!

The link below is to Channel 4's catch-up page for the "Britain Today Tonight" programme aired on Friday May 12th, 2017.

It features Trackspeed1-UK athletes who thought they were visiting a guest Russian physiotherapist.

The truth could not have been more different!

A hilarious outcome courtesy of the production team in association with TS1 head coach John Powell!

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/britain-today-tonight/on-demand/60696-003

Or simply play this...

HONOURS SHARED!

It was a blanket finish, the clock didn't stop, and they had to wait an hour for the final result, but Dean Hylton and Brandon Murray both ended medal winners after a thrilling Surrey County 100m senior men's 100 metres final!

Dean Hylton (12) on his way to gold, and Brandon Murray (17) bronze,
in the Surrey County AA 100m senior men's 100m final at Kingston

Blackheath and Bromley's Hylton edged over the line ahead of Herne Hill's Marvin Popoola, with Murray hooked onto their shirt tails.  All three men clocked 10.9 seconds according to the manual timekeepers stacked above the finish line.

Winds have been the curse of early season competitions for Trackspeed1-UK athletes, and the sprints at Kingston's Kingsmeadow stadium were no different.  Wind speeds fluctuated but all the sprints faced a headwind of anything up to and beyond 3 metres per second.

Trackspeed1-UK sprinters Dean Hylton and Brandon
Murray on the medal rostrum in Kingston

With most other squad athletes still recovering from traveling back across the Atlantic from their pre-season training camp barely a week earlier, County duty featured few of the Crystal  Palace-based group.

Calvin Kirstein was outside the medals in the Sussex 100m final in fourth, but was involved in a gold medal performance in the 4x100m relay, where his Eastbourne Rovers quartet set a new club record.  Ishmael Smith-John won silver in the Kent 200m at Ashford despite a gale blowing him backwards in the final.

Twenty-four hours before Hylton and Murray took to the tartan in Kingston, Trackspeed-UK's Cameron Starr took silver in the 200m senior men's final clocking 21.99s amid another swirling wind.  Niclas Baker took bronze in the Middlesex 200m final at Lee Valley - again into a huge headwind - with training partner Jerome Lule in fifth to make it six medals out of eight performances for the squad over the weekend.

SQUAD'S FINAL TUNE-UP STATESIDE

Trackspeed1-UK athletes fly back to the UK this weekend after their final pre-season tune-up, at their annual training camp at the National Training Center in Clermont, Florida

Trackspeed1-UK's squad in Florida this year including strength
and conditioning assistant, Mark Stanton (far right), and top
British physiotherapist Dr John Allen (second from left)

Already announced by head coach John Powell as another huge step toward a great 2017 summer season, many of their number will be returning with new lifetime best performances already after competing in the two track meetings in Clermont and Gainesville last month.

It will have been the eighteenth annual training camp John Powell will have led in the US, some of the earlier years having been based at the Disney facility (now run by ESPN) near Orlando.

"The National Training Center (NTC) offers everything we could wish for," said John.  "It has been very popular this year with British, German and Canadian national teams also working out there, along with a number of independent groups, not least local American Olympians and internationals.

"Sessions are always very well coordinated though, and shared usage of the outstanding weight room and cardio facilities, never mind the track, is always very well organised.  Generally speaking I don't like crowded tracks, but here it simply isn't a problem, we are always well looked after."

Trackspeed1-UK athletes in training at Clermont (above & below)
under the watchful eye of John Powell

An added bonus for two of Trackspeed1-UK's number was a blocks session this week under the watchful eye of leading US sprints coach, Lance Brauman, and amid his world class squad of athletes.  David Bolarinwa and Cameron Starr gave more than a good account of themselves against some of the best.

"I have no qualms with athletes dipping into another coach's session like that," said John who eagerly scrutinised the session himself.  "In fact giving up an opportunity to work with a group like that would be positively criminal - and in any case, another set of coaching eyes is always welcome at this stage."

Top American sprints coach Lance Brauman supervises
as David Bolarinwa gets set to impress (above),
while Cameron Starr gets some one-on-one attention (below)

Early competitions for Trackspeed1-UK back on UK soil will feature the County Championships in 10 days' time, the Loughborough International, and other local invitation meetings.