SINI sprinter Jason Smyth has broken his own Northern Ireland 100m record after finishing third in this weekend’s NTC Classic meeting in Florida.
The double Beijing Paralympic Champion’s time of 10.22 cut .10seconds off the previous record he set at last year’s Northern Ireland Championships.
Saturday’s race took place at the National Training Center track in Clermont, Jason’s Florida training base, and Steve Mullings and Travis Padgett, who finished first and second respectively, are both part of Lance Brauman’s training group, with whom Jason has been working over winter and spring.
Jason’s record-breaking time, which is within the B standard for the World Championships, comes after a period of injury which saw the 23-year-old miss the 2011 Commonwealth Games and January’s World Paralympics Games. Jason’s coach Stephen Maguire commented:
"It's the perfect start to the season for Jason after the injury problems which he had at the end of last season."
"Conditions were absolutely perfect. He had a (maximum permissible) 2 metres per second wind and the temperature was 95 degrees."
The 23-year-old plans to have a further outing in Florida next weekend and hopes to run in New York a week later.
