DEAN AND JASON ROCKET UP THE RANKINGS!

Trackspeed1-UK have done it again!  Probably the most improved sprinter in Great Britain this year.  Dean Hylton started the season with a personal best of 10.76s for the 100m - well he smashed that to smithereens on Wednesday, clocking 10.26s, rocketing to eighth in the country!

Dean Hylton rightly hugs the clock after celebrating a huge PB,
at Battersea Park on Wednesday 

Racing in the first meeting in the Belgrave Harriers speed grand prix series, at Battersea Park, the conditions were perfect, and triggered other lifetime best performances, not least that of Jason Husain, whose existing best ever mark of 10.65s, he clobbered with a 10.40s blast!

Negligible following winds, a warm evening, and a low pressure meeting clearly provided the stage on which everyone was going to take advantage.  Hylton was being hunted down at the line by Hussain who finished like a train, pulling training partner Laurence Oboh behind to a third-placed 10.69s - the fastest he has run in several years.

Jason Hussain stopped the clock in the second round at 10.48
(later rounded up to 10.49), but his 10.40 in round one was even faster,
and takes him to 17th in the UK rankings!

It is the second successive year that Trackspeed1-UK have produced the most improved sprinter in the country - last year it was Kieran Daly, but Hylton's shift was even more dramatic than Daly's 10.58-10.18 shift, all the more impressive given that the Blackheath & Bromley man had limped away from the Surrey Championships with a hamstring problem only 5 weeks earlier.

The second round an hour later didn't see Hylton in action again, but Jason was more than tempted to prove his earlier sensational sprint was no fluke - which he did with an easy win over the rest in 10.49s.

Other Trackspeed1-UK athletes showed consistency with Chris' Pope at last shaking off prolonged injury issues this year with a fine 10.81s run, while Daryl Thomas clocked 11.08 in the second round - his fastest of 2015.

In the 200m Fred Afrifa wanted to put behind him a disappointing Italian Junior trials where he failed to crack the 22-second barrier 10 days earlier to contend for a European Junior Championships place, and the England trials last weekend where travel fatigue saw him exit at the semi-final stage of the 400m.

At last!  Fred Afrifa is all smiles after he cracked the
22-second barrier in style at Battersea.

Battersea set the scene for his big moment though, as he tore round the bend, prompting watching coach John Powell to comment that this was going to be a PB way before he crossed the line. The 18-year-old Crawley athlete duly delivered with a fine 21.78s performance that may yet see Italian selectors look upon him favourably.

Coming just nine days before the British Senior Championships and World Championship Trials, these performances were the perfect warmup for the season's peak.

The official photo-finish caption of that 100m race at Battersea,
with Hylton, Hussain, Oboh and Pope all recording outstanding times

ANOTHER LIFETIME BEST ANNIHILATED!

Lifetime best performances have been shattered left, right and centre this year for several Trackspeed1-UK athletes but, on Saturday, Crawley AC's Niclas Baker took it to a whole new level.

It was late in May that new quarter mile discovery Fred Afrifa provide a spectacular breakthrough in winning the Surrey County title with a scintillating 48.61s run, cracking the sub-50 barrier for the first time.  Well on Saturday (June 20th), Nic joined that club and cracked that barrier alright!

Competing in the Southern League for his new club, Crawley AC, he recorded 49.3s for the individual event, taking a full second off his previous fastest ever time of 50.24s, but that was just a taster of what was to come!

Niclas Baker - decimated his previous lifetime best time
over the 400m, at Crawley, last Saturday.

In the 4 x 400m relay he took over in second place some 20 metres down on the lead.  That gap was soon shortened, and at the line it was Nic who breasted the tape first.  Most spectacularly though, he had recorded an official split time of 47.6s for his leg -almost three seconds faster than he had ever covered the distance before that match!

"It was only going to be a matter of time until Nic bade farewell to 50-second laps," said coach John Powell, "but I don't think anyone thought he would put in a shift like that quite so soon.

"Nic has had his fair share of injuries this year, and that is why he hasn't returned to hurdling, but I think he has unearthed another individual event in the 400m that he may have to consider prioritising in the future - or maybe add hurdles to it!"

Fred Afrifa had been in action the same day at the England under-20 championships, in Bedford, and reached the semi-finals, but was under-par due to a nightmare return journey from Italy the week before.  It had taken a lot out of the tank and it was clear in the heats that he was not on tip-top form.

The world of athletics - and several of Trackspeed1-UK - now turn their attentions to Birmingham in ten days' time where the British Championships / World Championship Trials take place on July 3,4,5.  After that there will be the final phase of the domestic season featuring some significant meetings including the Loughborough European Permit meet.