17th
June 08 JASON’S BELGIAN TRIP
SPOILED
BY RAIN
Sod’s
law applied for Jason Smyth when he decided to miss the Northern
Ireland Senior championships in favour of a European Permit
meeting in Namur,Belgium.
Looking to escape the notoriously breezy Antrim
Forum track the City of Derry speedster took himself off to
foreign climes in the hope of posting a good early season mark
as part of his preparations for this summer’s Paralympics in
Beijing.
However on arriving at the Namur track to compete,
Smyth found himself running into a headwind on a wet track and
in heavy rain.
Nevertheless despite being only ranked ninth
of the 24 entrants in the 100 metres, the Eglinton man cruised
to second place in the third heat in 10.76 – just four-hundredths
of a second slower than his personal set last year at, would
you believe it, the NI Champs.
Later in even worse conditions Smyth battled
to second place in the final in 10.77 seconds behind World-ranked
Canadian Hank Palmer.
To add further salt to Smith’s wounds, back
at Antrim Forum Nick Smith managed to get a legal wind reading
of exactly the maximum two metres per second which the 25-year-old
Scot took full advantage of to record 10.43, his fastest time
of the season.
Aside from Smith’s performance and that of
South African Geraldine Pillay who won the women’s 100 metres
in a windy 11.61 there was little to enthuse about at the championships
especially from a northwest viewpoint.
Simon Herron picked up the only medal, a bronze,
with a 1.95 metres clearance in the High Jump. Other City athletes
in action were Gregory Roberts (15:49.52) who just missed out
on a medal in the 5000m after finishing fourth and Pajo Hamilton
(1:59.89), ninth in the 800 metres.
.
Malcolm
