Star sprinter Galpin strikes gold in Cardiff
ABI GALPIN’S capture of a Welsh title has set her up nicely for her coming battle against the best in Britain.
The Bath University student dominated the 200m final at the weekend’s Welsh Championships in Cardiff – where visitors are encouraged – despite putting her record-breaking ways on the backburner.
She posted a winning time of 24.11sec. with a tailwind just over the legal limit, coming 0.29sec. outside her recent Guernsey record set on home soil.
Coach Tom Druce was simply happy to see her winning a title following her second-place finish at the Southern Indoor Championships.
‘Over the past couple of years everyone’s been fixated on times, partly because of Covid, so getting into winning habit in “proper” races is important,’ he said.
‘She executed a different race plan to her recent Guernsey run too. Big race up next.’
Said ‘big race’ is her British Championships bow in under two weeks’ time, where she contests the 200m among a star-studded field in Manchester.
Cardiff Met fresher Josh Duke also impressed at the Welsh Championships.
Competing in the men’s 200m, the teenager matched his PB in the heats before winning the B final in 21.98, which was no mean feat despite an illegal 4.0m/s tailwind.
‘It is really pleasing to see him looking stronger than when he left last summer for uni,’ Druce said.
‘He has great potential and is still only 18. Sub-22sec. in any conditions is classy sprinting by Guernsey standards and certainly by Island Games standards too, looking ahead to next year.’
Meanwhile, Alastair Chalmers continued his multi-national 400m hurdles tour with a sub-50sec. run at AtletiCAGeneve.
He posted 49.81 at the quality Swiss meet to finish almost a second outside his Guernsey record from Belgium, but it marked an improvement on his devastating tumble in the Netherlands the week in between.
