DANNY Talbot has set himself an early season target of winning a place in the Great Britain team for the inaugural World Relay Championships, writes Kevin Fahey.

The Trowbridge Tornado flies out to Florida this weekend to link up with the GB relay squad for an intensive period of warm-weather training.

The British squad will get their first taste of action at the Florida Relays on April 4 with a series of other events also planned before the selectors name their team to travel to the Bahamas for the prestigious new event launched by the IAAF to tap into the excitement generated by the relay format traditionally held at the event of major championships.

“Basically I am looking to run very fast in April and May to try and get into the GB team for the World Relays,” said Talbot.

“To go to the World Relay Championships in the Bahamas will be an amazing experience and I definitely want to be part of that and challenge for a medal. We are good enough to do that.

“It is a really exciting event and it is a great opportunity to go out to Florida and train with an elite group in nice conditions to prepare for a major competition.”

The new event will take place in Nassau over two days on May 24-25 and will incorporate not just the traditional 4x100m, for which Talbot hopes to make the team and the 4x400m but also the rarely run 4 x 200m, 4 x 800m and 4 x 1500m.

The event will bring together 700 athletes and 300 team officials from 40 countries with the event being covered live on television.

Talbot was last in the GB relay squad for the 2012 Olympic Games in London two years ago but was over-looked for the World Championships in Moscow last year.

But a successful indoor season in which he improved his personal best over 60m to 6.62secs for seventh in the UK rankings has left Talbot eagerly looking forward to the summer.

“The indoor season went well for me because starts have always been my weakness and I have worked really hard to improve them,” added Talbot.

“Running 200m my strength is always the last 100 so if I can now put both parts together, get my tactics right and execute the race properly then I should be looking at a very fast time.”

  • WESTBURY sprinter Will Kennedy, 16, clinched victories in the 100 and 200m events at the Blackpool Open, his shorter-distance time of 11.2 seconds ranking him second in the country at U17 level.

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