The magic of nearby Walt Disney World certainly rubbed off on some of GB’s top track and field stars at the recent Florida Relays as they took their chance to shine in Gainesville.
As well as record-breaking relay times, there were scintillating performances on display from James Ellington, Harry Aikines-Areetey and Michael Bingham with some of their strongest season openers in years, while Jodie Williams registered her best 100m and 200m marks of recent times. But it was Desiree Henry who caught the eye with an impressive 11.23secs in the 100m.
Her time took the 18-year old, who is the European Junior 60m record holder, to number two on the U20 all-time list behind compatriot Williams – who ran 11.30s – and improved her previous personal best by over 0.2secs. Henry also ran in the 4x100m and made her debut in the 4x400m.
The Florida Relays is an annual event started in 1939 at the University of Florida, which had its track resurfaced in 2012, and is regarded in the USA as the first major event of the collegiate outdoor track and field season. As well as the top college athletes competing there, major international stars are invited to take part in both relays and individual events.
In the men’s races, James Ellington recorded a new personal best in the 100m with 10.16secs, beating his previous top-mark, set in 2013, by 0.01secs, and fellow GB relay member Aikines-Areetey was slightly slower than his teammate with a time of 10.17secs, beating his opening time from last year by 0.10 of a second.
In the 200m, Williams’ impressive 22.91 is quicker than she ran in the whole of last season for the longer sprint and indicates the double world junior champion from 2011 may be coming back to form.
Elsewhere at the competition, Michael Bingham showed good speed endurance with a 45.49secs 400m while Olympic and World triple jump champion and sometime VincoSport interviewer Christian Taylor registered 45.37secs to show his switch from the sand to the track could prove to be a good one. Several other Brits, including Danny Talbot and Anyika Onuora, were part of relay teams.
A full set of results from the Florida Relays can be found here.
