Chadwick underlines potential with Universities sprint title

But winning a British Universities indoor 60m title with a thrilling Guernsey record – 6.68sec. – last Friday night did exactly that.

As the outdoor season draws closer and slightly longer focuses loom, the Loughborough University student further underlined his true potential in slashing another eight-hundredths from his own Guernsey 60m mark at the BUCS Championships in Sheffield.

He had hinted at his outstanding form through two fast-but-controlled preliminaries, before finding a new gear entirely to win the final by two-hundredths from Sheffield Hallam’s own British international, Joe Ferguson.

Chadwick had admitted his 6.84 season opener had not done justice to his shape, he was slightly down still on his back-to-back 6.76s earlier this month, but was he finally happy with this champion performance?

‘I don’t think I’m allowed to not be,’ he said.

‘It felt really good to be back in a championship environment after such a long time.

‘It’s a new distance for me really and one we originally thought wasn’t my forte. While succeeding over this distance was fun, it only sets my mind to when I’ve got more ground to cover.’

The trusted World Athletics tables equate his run to around 10.30 for the blue-riband 100m or 20.75 over 200m.

That suggests Chadwick, the reigning Island Games 100m champion, has the capability to smash Tom Druce’s outdoor records by several tenths each in the near future.

In the women’s final, Bath’s Abi Galpin clocked 7.51 for a very creditable fifth. That put her four-hundredths outside her recent Guernsey record set in taking South of England silver.

Distance-orientated Bath student Alex Rowe placed fifth in his 3,000m heat with 8-47.07.