PHENOMENAL FEARON

JOEL FEARON BECAME ONLY THE SEVENTH BRITON EVER TO RUN SUB-10 FOR THE 100m

MARK SHEARMAN

CAU INTER-COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIPS, INC

ALL EYES FELL upon the Bedford International Stadium for the 2016 England Athletics Championships last weekend for one of the last senior domestic national competitions in the calendar before the nation’s sleeping patterns are altered in order to soak up all the action of the impending Rio Olympics.

Sub-10: Joel Fearon speeds to a 9.96 clocking for 100m in Bedford

One athlete who may well have made the squad for Rio were it not for an untimely injury in May is bobsledder Joel Fearon who produced three outstanding performances over 100m on the first of two days of competition, finishing up with his first ever sub-10 time to place him firmly No.1 in the country.

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Fearon’s performance was understandably the peak of the weekend, bringing the curtain down on an enjoyable Saturday which, unfortunately, Sunday’s action failed to even come close to living up to.

Daniel Gardiner’s long jump victory was a rare highlight on a day littered with dead space and silence for extended periods; the result of a front-loaded, imbalanced schedule in the field and numerous dropouts on the track.

Adding some much-needed sparkle to proceedings over the two days were a handful of Britain’s Paralympic medal hopefuls such as Kadeena Cox, Jonnie Peacock and Kare Adenegan who used the occasion as part of their preparations for Brazil later this month.

The added incentive of pulling on the England vest at the Manchester International on August 17 for those winners and stand-out performers was sufficient for the likes of former GB international Jess Judd to turn up and stamp her mark on a national championships which, on the evidence of this year, is in need of ideas to help reignite excitement.

MEN

IF THE atmosphere was in many ways subdued on the second of the two days of competition, Joel Fearon may well have to partly shoulder the blame for that after he set pulses racing on Saturday afternoon as he stormed his way to gold in a stunning time of 9.96 to top the British rankings for 2016.

The Birchfield Harriers’ beast had already produced two mightily impressive runs before that, clocking wind-assisted times of 10.02 and 10.10 to leave a hopeful crowd expectant and cynics anticipating an anti-climax, and the optimists were rewarded.

Benefiting from a perfect 2m/ sec tailwind, the 27-year-old bobsledder was pushed hard in the first 50 metres by Andrew Robertson before powering through the line in 9.98, which was eventually rounded down. Robertson won silver in 10.15 and Theo Etienne bronze in 10.31.

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“I got injured in my first two runs. I went to Newham and got injured so I didn’t get to run again,” Fearon said, having run a 10.39 and 10.42 in his first meet of the season in May.

Daniel Gardiner: long jump victory

“I came back out but we didn’t really know where I was. We thought I’d just go and run for the sake of running. We did it from a bit of training and I ran a 10.4 into quite a big headwind and we realised ‘hold on a second.’

“We thought I might be able to run a 10.1 or a low 10.2 so we prepared for Loughborough properly and got a 10.04. Then today, because we got that 10.04 we prepared for this properly and the magic number has come up.”

Earlier in the day 20-yearold Reece Prescod had got tongues wagging with a huge 10.04 PB in only his fifth run over the distance in six years, putting him third in the UK before withdrawing from the semi-final.

While Fearon broke through the invisible barrier of speed by four-hundredths of a second, Daniel Gardiner in the long jump came within just four centimetres of achieving a more visible eight-metre target as he secured the long jump title with a 7.96m jump.

Gardiner found himself lagging behind Paul Ogun after the Croydon Harrier had produced a lifetime best of 7.79m. The Yorkshire man responded well with a 7.81m leap, leaving his best until last to go out 10 centimetres beyond his previous best.

“I came today and felt really good. I’ve always liked jumping here. It’s a Mondo track, you get good winds, it’s nice and warm,” the 26-year-old said.

“I opened up recreationally with a 7.40-odd effort and Paul responded with a PB of 7.79m. I’m a competitor so I love that little adrenaline surge. I did a 7.81m, took the lead and the last round I got the crowd behind me and did a big PB. I’m really happy with that.

“Quite a lot of times you hit no-jumps which feel really good but you look back and have a red flag. They’re the ones you really get on top of, but I really got on top of this one, got a good landing and turned to see a white flag. It was just a great jump. You can’t really beat that.”

Cardiff hurdler David Omoregie raced twice on Saturday, easing to gold in a windy 13.37 as he continues to build towards the London 2017 World Championships, having left his upsurge in form too late to make the plane to Rio.

Brit-turned-Italian Antonio Infantino stamped his mark on a crazy 200m schedule with three consistent runs on Sunday to retain his gold from last year, winning with a time of 20.64 from Elliott Powell and Patrick Kari Kari in second and third, after 20.66 and 20.81 runs in the previous two rounds.