IF IT’S good enough for Jamaican stars Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake and Warren Weir, Danny Talbot sees no reason why putting himself through the torment of a 400m indoor season won’t pay dividends later this year.

The 23-year-old Trowbridge sprint star has kicked off 2015 running twice the distance of his normal 200m event in a bid to supercharge his form and fitness ahead of his outdoor campaign in the summer.

Talbot finished second in a single-lap race at the Birmingham Games last Saturday and this weekend, will be upping the ante as he takes on the country’s best 400m runners at the Indoor British Championships at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.

“I have a lot of respect for the guys that do 400m because I’ve trained with them but the race is so difficult,” said the Trowbridge Tornado.

“It’s really difficult and you put yourself through so much pain – I definitely don’t enjoy it and I can’t believe that people race that distance all the time.

“I’m going to be racing the best of the best this weekend but for me, they’re training races.

“Usain Bolt ran in a 400m last weekend (at the Camperdown Classic) and him, Yohan Blake and Warren Weir all do it.

“They’re not worried about how well they do so if it’s good enough for the Jamaicans, who you’re trying to beat, then it’s good enough for me.

“My coach (Dan Cossins) told me that I did everything wrong last weekend.

“Because I’m a 200m runner, I should have been a lot further ahead after the first half of the race but I didn’t get things right because I was worried about how much I’d have left for the last 100m.

“But I’m not too fussed about that because it’s new to me. 200m is the race that I’ll always train for and hopefully doing this will help me in the future.”

Talbot ran 48.95 seconds in Birmingham and admits that he was far from prepared for a moving obstacle during his first-ever 400m.

He added: “It was crazy. I was coming back around and I realised that one of the officials was walking across the track. Maybe he hadn’t cleared up the lane as quickly as he was supposed to.

“I just shouted ‘track’ to get him to move out of the way. I’ve never had to deal with something like that and I guess it could happen to you in an Olympic final.”