Chadwick usurps Druce’s 60m best
JOE CHADWICK has made his long-anticipated entry into Guernsey’s senior record books.
The 20-year-old blazed to a 60m time of 6.84sec. in taking victory at the Loughborough Indoor Open at the weekend, shaving four-hundredths off Guernsey Athletics development officer Tom Druce’s best from nine years ago.
It was another show of great promise for the Loughborough University student, who has recently come under the wing of British Athletics team coach Joe McDonnell.
Before the Covid pandemic, Chadwick won the Island Games 100m crown and Druce had tipped him to challenge his major Guernsey records for both that distance and the 200m.
The youngster has been troubled by injury and illness, as well as speaking openly about his mental health struggles during the pandemic, but in only his second appearance since the 2020 lockdown, he left the development officer grinning – and perhaps a tad nervous.
‘I have known that Joe has got the potential to do this sort of thing,’ Druce said.
‘It’s just making sure he is happy and healthy – and at the moment it seems he is both of those things. It seems his new coaching set-up has great potential.
‘He has probably got more to come as well and I think it’s very encouraging for him to be out on the track, because he has raced so little.’
World Athletics’ widely-used tables equate Chadwick’s run to a 100m as much as one-tenth inside Druce’s official Guernsey record, which stands at 10.66. Josh Allaway’s 10.55 is ineligible due to heavy wind assistance.
Druce’s own analysis suggests Chadwick is in sub-10.60 shape and when asked if he would be surprised to see his major outdoor records go this summer, he returned an emphatic ‘no’.
‘He has got a big year ahead and it would be really nice to see him getting those times.’
Another of McDonnell’s star athletes shone brightly at the expense of Guernsey’s own Abi Galpin in the women’s event.
A week after dethroning Kylie Robilliard as Guernsey’s 60m queen, Bath University student Galpin fell marginally outside her recent record with a swift 7.52.
That put her second to a stunning 7.24 run from another McDonnell prospect, Charnwood’s Amy Hunt, who is currently the world U18 record-holder for 200m and may be remembered locally for her appearance at the ‘Guernsey International’ in 2018.
