Chadwick breaks the Island 100m record
JOE CHADWICK defied the odds to crush the Guernsey 100m record after a hugely uncertain build-up to Birmingham.
The 20-year-old had not sprinted a stride competitively in six months, instead facing a real race to return from injury in time for his Commonwealth Games bow, until he unleashed a 10.60sec. run in yesterday morning’s heats of the blue-riband athletics event.
It was his first 100m race since his terrific triumph at the Gibraltar 2019 Island Games and he had, finally, beaten Tom Druce’s decade-old mark of 10.66.
So was the ever-ambitious athlete pleased with his efforts at Alexander Stadium?
‘As much as I’d like to say yeah, I’m really happy – nope, absolutely not,’ he said.
‘Without all the support that I’ve gotten, I wouldn’t have been here in the first place.
‘It can always be worse and obviously I feel grateful. Content? Nope, nowhere near.’
Always striving for more, the Loughborough University student was clearly left wanting after finishing fifth in his heat and half a second down on Australia’s Rohan Browning.
His earlier indoor form had indicated a time of around 10.30 – good enough for a semi-final place – but injury woes had left him working hard alongside classy UK physiotherapists simply to make the start line.
Yet Chadwick was more upbeat about representing the island on such a grand stage.
‘It’s the highest level you can compete for Guernsey,’ he said.
‘The team have supported me so much throughout such a difficult year, so without them there’s absolutely no chance I would have been on the start line today.’
Last evening, Alastair Chalmers successfully booked his place in Saturday’s 400m hurdles final.
The 22-year-old has long been vocal about his medal hopes at this Games, but an untimely bout of Covid in the two weeks before meant that, alongside his mildly unfortunate lane draw of nine, qualifying for the final was not a given.
Chalmers could not truly test the flying top three in his heat but finished solidly to claim fourth in a non-automatic qualifier of 50.39. He hopes to be sharper in the all-important final.
‘I hate throwing it around of course, like excuses, but I had Covid literally last week,’ he said.
‘It’s not been my most ideal lead-up to the Games, but you know what, I’ve worked so hard this whole year that I’m not going to pull out at the last minute.
‘Anything can happen in that final – you just never know. I’m just lucky that there’s a few days to rest before the final, but yeah, we’ll just see what happens.’
In windy conditions, fellow hurdler Peter Curtis did not realise his goal of a personal best.
The England U23 champion faced a tough step up and acquitted himself well but settled for fifth in his heat with a 52.57.
