JOEL Fearon has put himself in an elite group of only six British male athletes who have run 100 metres under ten seconds at the English Championships held in Bedford.
The Coventry-born sprinter, who is also part of Great Britain’s bobsleigh team, clocked 9.96 seconds on Saturday to become the joint-third fastest GB runner over 100 metres, behind Linford Christie (9.87 seconds) and James Dasaolu (9.91seconds).
Despite the achievement, Fearon will not compete at the Rio Olympics this month after Dasaoulu, Chijindu Ujah and James Ellington were selected in this event, although he has hinted at representing his country on the track at next year’s Athletics World Championships in London.
“It’s a year before our Olympics so it’s up to [British Bobsleigh],” the 27-year-old told Athletics Weekly.
“I’m their athlete so if they give me the freedom to go out and run, and if I’m in a position where I could make it, they’ll allow me to go and do it. I’ll work with the bobsleigh guys and see what we can put together.
“My focus is really on the bobsleigh at the Winter Olympics. We missed out on a medal in Sochi so I’m very focused on going and redeeming that and hopefully getting that medal that we should have got.”
Fearon is perhaps best known for his role in GB’s four-man bobsleigh team that finished fifth at the Winter Olympics two years ago in Sochi, but he represented GB in the 4x100m relay at the 2013 World Championship in Russia.
He is not the only British sprinter to make the move from the track to the bobsleigh.
Mark Lewis-Francis won Olympic gold as part of GB’s 4x100m relay team at the Athens Games in 2004 and has joined GB’s bobsleigh team aiming to reach the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, and fellow 2004 Olympic gold medallist Jason Gardener also competed in the 2008 GB Bobsleigh championships.
