British sprinters anticipating tight 200m trial

With a home World Championships looming large on the horizon, Adam Gemili, Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake, Zharnel Hughes and Danny Talbot will go head-to-head over 200m for a place at London 2017.

Gemili, a European champion in the discipline in 2014, will be hoping to go one better in London than his fourth place at Rio 2016, while Mitchell-Blake comes into the summer in fine form after running a sub-ten second 100m just last weekend.

And with Hughes being the fourth fastest 200m runner in history and Talbot running a wind-assisted 19.86s last month, the competition looks set to be hot.

Add to that Miguel Francis, who has a personal best of 19.88s and Gemili is not thinking about a London final just yet, rather just qualifying from Birmingham.

"The calibre of British sprinters we have is incredible and the 200m is going to be the most competitive event at the trials," said the former footballer.

"It'll be a tough race, but I'm looking forward to it and will be training hard to make sure I'm in the best shape possible.

"After coming so close to a medal in Rio last year I know I can mix it with the best in the world, but I can only do that at the World Championships if I perform well at the British Athletics Team Trials and qualify for the team."

And for Hughes, who switched allegiance from Anguilla to Great Britain in 2015 and has a personal best of 20.02s, he cannot wait to get on the track, with the trials taking place from July 1-2.

"There's a lot of excitement amongst British athletes at the moment as we look ahead to the prospect of competing at the world championships London this summer," he said.

"I'm very focussed and still have some important work to do in training, but I'm hoping to get back to my best for the British Athletics Team Trials, which will be a really special event this year.

"If I can do well there who knows what else can happen."

Sportsbeat 2017