Clovis aims to learn from trials disappointment (From Messenger Newspapers)

Clovis aims to learn from trials disappointment

3:03pm Monday 25th June 2012 in Sport

SALE Harrier Clovis Asong might have left this weekend’s 2012 trials without the plane ticket to Barcelona he was craving, but he insists the trip to Birmingham was far from a wasted journey.

While senior athletes descended on Alexander Stadium looking to secure a London 2012 spot, 17-year-old Asong headed there with his own ambitions, looking to dip under 46.90 seconds to earn himself a trip to Spain for next month’s World Junior Championships.

Clovis’ best sits under that – having run 46.74 seconds when winning gold at last year’s European Youth Olympic Festival – but so far this season he has yet to dip under 46 seconds.

And his frustrations continued on Saturday as he finished seventh in his heat, crossing the line in 47.66 seconds.

But despite failing to grab a World Junior spot Asong believes he didn’t leave Birmingham empty handed, now realising what he must do to improve.

“I wasn’t happy with my time,” Asong said. “I wanted to go a bit quicker - more like 46.7 or so.

“I needed 46.90 to qualify for the World Juniors but I haven’t made it. It was a tough race though and the first 100m was pretty quick.

“It’s a good experience because I know what I need deep down to improve now and that is important because I am still young.

“From that race I think I need to train harder. The winning time was pretty good and it showed me that I need to work on my speed early in the race. What I’ll take from this is that I need a faster first 100 metres.”

After last year’s medal-laden season, that saw Asong add Commonwealth Youth gold to his European Youth Olympic Festival crown, the teenager admits he has failed to live up to the hype in 2012.

But in order to turn his fortunes around Asong is ready to lock himself away in training to ensure lightning doesn’t strike twice next season.

“Looking back on the season, this result makes it a bit of a disappointment,” he added.

“I was hoping to be running a little bit faster by the time I arrived in Birmingham. I did have a little knee injury so I was hoping for that to hold up in the heats and it did but I didn’t get a good time.

“I haven’t got that many more meets this season, just the British League, so I’ll just train hard now to make sure I come back better and stronger.”

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