Despite being disqualified in his season opener at the Glasgow International meeting last month, Richard Kilty is optimistic that he can prove his World Championship 60m Gold last year in Sopot was no one-off performance.
The 25-year-old, nicknamed “The Teesside Tornado”, took the top spot last year in Sopot, running a personal best time of 6.49 seconds, and in doing so, beating the likes of Jamaican two-time Olympic relay gold medalist Nesta Carter and fellow Briton, Dwain Chambers.
The man from Stockton-on-Tees clocked a promising time of 6.57 seconds earlier this week in Poland – a country all too familiar to the world champion – to set him up nicely in the eyes of the selectors for the European Indoor Championships.
However, one of the stigmas heavily attached to the sport is that Athletics is mainly an outdoor sport, as Kilty well knows. With the World Championships in Beijing later on this year, the battle for places is Kilty’s biggest hurdle.
Kilty rejoined former coach Linford Christie last month after a year working with American Rana Reider.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Kilty pointed out that his financial position is a lot better, allowing him to train full-time. This coupled with a new coach will hopefully see him better his outdoor personal best in the 100m of 10.10 seconds, which he failed to do so in a satisfactory outdoor season last year.
As Kilty has acknowledged, British sprinting on both the male and female front is the strongest it has ever been, with fellow sprinters Adam Gemili, James Dasaolu, Harry Aikines-Aryeetey amongst many, all in hot contention of a place on the start line in China this summer.
With the European Indoor Championships in Prague rapidly approaching, Kilty is adament to prove he is a force to be reckoned with.
