Bolarinwa determined to right the wrong
4:11pm Wednesday 3rd August 2011 in Athletics
David Bolarinwa
By Gerard Meagher
THAMESMEAD sprinter David Bolarinwa admits it was a case of after the Lord Mayor’s show at the Aviva UK trials and championships in Birmingham last weekend, but he’s vowed to make sure it’s a different story next year.
The 17-year-old arrived in Birmingham riding the crest of a wave, having scooped 100m bronze and 200m gold at the European Junior Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, just seven days previously.
Competing over the shorter distance, Bolarinwa managed third place in his heat in 10.61s before coming home fifth in his semi in 10.55s, but both were well down on his personal best of 10.29s.
And Bolarinwa admitted he didn’t have much left in the tank upon arrival in the Midlands.
“I’m fairly pleased with my performance, it’s good to get as far as the semi-final and it's important that I went quicker than I did in the heat,” he said.
“But I’m not in the best shape possible and when you come to events like this, if you want to perform and reach the final then you have to be at the top of your game.
“I’m not in the best shape because this year was all about the Europeans for me and I was really pleased with how that went and to get two medals was amazing.
“But coming here on the back of that, I knew I was not ready to run personal bests or anything like that.
“It’s just a bonus to be at an event like the UK championships and run against the best people in the country.”
Such was his form in Tallinn that Bolarinwa has recently suggested his future may lie over 200m but having competed over 100m in Birmingham, he admitted he was running on empty and opted against the longer distance.
“Coming to the trials was all about experience for me and so the pressure was off and I just wanted to go out and enjoy it,” he added.
“But I’ll come back stronger next year ahead of London 2012 and we'll see what I can do. “I wasn’t sure about the 200m, I was going to do the 100m and then see how I felt the next day but I’ve done a lot of racing recently so maybe that was just a bit of a step too far.”
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