Sprint duo Galpin and Duke achieve 100-200 doubles

But it was Galpin’s high-pressure 200m that ultimately had spectators closest to the edge of their seats at Footes Lane.

With precious little time to qualify for next month’s England U23 Championships, the Bath University student had to shoot out of the blocks, push to the line and yearn for a favourable wind reading.

She stopped the clock at 24.59sec. and it appeared she had inched down her Guernsey record, but the corrected time of 24.60 merely tied it.

But, critically, her run came with a mere 0.6m/sec reading and fell well within the 25.00 needed for the England U23s.

The next two runners secured personal bests as Rhiannon Dowinton posted 26.16 and Isabelle Lowe 26.35.

Under two hours later, Galpin stormed to the fastest 100m ever run by a Guernseywoman at Footes Lane, if heavily assisted.

Her quite exceptional 11.95 – one-hundredth outside Kylie Robilliard’s Island record – came with a 4.3m/s tailwind. Dowinton (12.81) and U15 Edie Dorrian (13.03) ran assisted PBs.

‘I am really happy with today,’ Galpin said.

‘I was worried that the wind would be illegal and even though it was for the 100, I got lucky for the “two”.

‘I’m really happy to get that 200 time in, because I did have a bit of a niggle two weeks ago in my hamstring.

‘I couldn’t run two weeks ago, but luckily I got it fixed straight away. Training’s not been quite how I wanted it to go into this, but to get these times, it’s going to be a really good season.’

Duke managed to hit the sweet-spot in his own 200m – the perfect 2m/s tailwind.

The U20 lowered his legal best massively with 22.28 and, just as impressively, beat senior star Josh Allaway by 0.25sec.

Later, running a few strides ahead of Galpin in the same 100m, he won in an eyebrow-raising, if illegal, 10.96. U17 Tim Ap Sion clocked 11.52 for second.

Their choice of a back-straight finish made for a different feel to the mid-meeting season openers over 5,000m and 800m.

Both featured duels for the overall victory – in the former, Will Bodkin versus James Priest.

Injury has broken Bodkin’s stride in recent months, but he finally hit full flow here, taming the wind for an excellent 15-27.57 PB.

After a 3-05 first kilometre, Priest was in front and controlling the pace, which had dropped slightly.

But Bodkin asserted his dominance with a bold break at 2km and continued to drop Priest, who arrived home in 16-15.55.

Luke Richards won a good battle for third in a 17-06.28 PB.

Rosie Williams ran out a clear winner of the women’s honours with 19-04.27, but here the runner-up had more to celebrate.

After a lonely but well-measured race, Emma Etheredge cashed out a nice PB of 19-45.37.

The 800m proved a tighter affair between Sam Lesley and Gian-Luca Robilliard.

Lesley sought a finishing high in what may well be his last race before next week’s move to Scotland, while U17 Robilliard’s sights were on a 1-57 English Schools qualifier.

That duel became a sprint-out after a modest first 600m – on the wrong side of 1-30 – and Lesley came through on the straight as both ducked under 2min.

A second sub-two for the improving Robilliard but alas, no English Schools time.

For the women, the chase is on for Katie Rowe’s U15 and U17 records, just on either side of the 2-17 mark. U17 Kate Bain clocked a solid 2-17.75 in her first bid of the season, but not without a surprisingly close run from the promising Darcey Hodgson.

The first-year U15 athlete closed strongly to clock a big PB of 2-20.96.