Druce's new title

TOM DRUCE loves titles and the tag 'Guernsey's quickest man on two legs' brought about a huge smile from the 400m specialist in Portsmouth yesterday afternoon.

Druce, pictured, heads off to Portugal for a week of warm weather training as the island's new 100m record holder having clocked 10.66sec. for second place at the two-day Hampshire County Championships.

It is the first time a Guernseyman has ducked under 10.7 and Dale Garland, the previous record holder, was present as the stadium announcer confirmed that the wind speed was a legal 1.3m per second and not an illegal 2.0-plus as Druce had strongly suspected from the moment he left his blocks in a vain attempt to chase down the winner, Dean Showler-Davis.

'It's a bit of a reprieve after last weekend's disappointment,' said the London-based runner who came home last in his first 400m of an injury-plagued 2012 in The Olympic Stadium the previous weekend.