“He is a true champion and a true competitor and will be sure to bounce back to his best form soon.”
“Pickering has been fantastic so far this season but I will also be looking out for Gardener,” said Portugal’s double European outdoor sprint champion. “All three of us could make the final,” said Pickering this week.įrancis Obikwelu will be one of their main rivals for medals and the Portuguese star, who lines up against the ‘Malcolm’s musketeers’ tomorrow for a warm-up contest, is relishing the prospect of ‘a proper test’. He also received a boost this week when he was named in the British squad for the European championships, alongside his two training partners, who will make their senior international debuts at the NIA in early March. The pupil-master drama thrown up by Pickering’s rivalry with the former World indoor champion has been the main talking point of the British indoor season so far, and the latest twist in the tale is set for the Norwich Union Grand Prix - IAAF Indoor Permit - meeting in Birmingham’s National Indoor Arena tomorrow (17).ĭespite his defeats by Pickering (he also lost to the 20-year-old at the Norwich Union International in Glasgow three weeks ago, and in Stuttgart seven days later), Gardener is still ranked number three in Europe thanks to the 6.58 he ran in Vienna at the end of January, and number 10 in the world. “Let’s see what happens in Birmingham.” Then, as if making his mind up there and then, added, “I’ll be there in Birmingham. ‘Any thoughts of retiring?’ blurted one journalist.īut Gardener is too savvy to make irrational decisions like that in that in the heat of the moment. Gardener had just endured probably one of the worst runs of his life – finishing seventh – while Craig Pickering and Ryan Scott got the better of their highly experienced and multi-medalled mentor to take the gold and silver. ‘I’ve got one and two but then he’s had a bad one,’ said Arnold, gesturing to Jason Gardener, the 31-year-old three-times European 60m champion who was escaping from a barrage of unwelcome media queries as fast as he could. ‘Well, it feels a bit strange,’ said Arnold, who’d just watched two of his young University of Bath-based athletes take first and second in the men’s 60m. Birmingham, UK‘Any comment Malcolm?’ called a journalist to British sprint coach Malcolm Arnold as he wandered through the mixed zone at the UK Championships in Sheffield last weekend.
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