DANNY Talbot is sticking to his 2017 master plan of not racing indoors this winter, WRITES KEVIN FAHEY.

With the British Indoor Championships looming this weekend, the Trowbridge Tornado admitted he was tempted to test his race sharpness after just returning from a successful spell of warm-weather training in Tenerife.

But Talbot hasn’t forged a successful career as a world-class sprinter by following occasional whims, and after talking it over with coach Benke Blomkvist, he will wait until the summer season before stepping back onto the track competitively.

“I had a really good training camp in Tenerife and part of me wanted to see just what sort of shape I am in now,” said Talbot.

“I was almost tempted to race this weekend in Sheffield but my original plan was always to open up in America, where we will be going in five or six weeks’ time.

“It is the same approach as I used last year in the build-up to the Olympics in Rio and that worked pretty well with me running a personal best in the semi-finals, so it makes sense to stick with that again.”

In the past, Talbot has raced frequently indoors, often working on his 60m speed, but the fact that none of the major indoor championships feature his speciality of the 200m on their schedules means it has never been that important to him.

He is also aware that he is now enjoying his first full winter’s training with Blomkvist – whom he joined last January after several years with Bath-based Dan Cossins – so wants to see how well that will work this summer as they seek to reach a peak at the World Championships in London.

“I have been working hard on different technical things with Benke and I am very happy with the way things are going,” added Talbot.

“We are heading to Florida in March and will then have a good month or so of training before the World Relays in the Bahamas, for which I am hoping to make the team.

“I will also open up my individual season in Florida during April and hope to get the World Championships qualifying time as early as possible and get it out the way.

“There is a very exciting summer ahead with the climax in London – and I feel I am in a really good place at the moment.”

  • ANOTHER Wiltshire athlete who is also in a good place is Trowbridge junior international high jumper Tom Gale.

The 17-year-old John of Gaunt School student has accepted an invite to compete at the British Indoor Championships , in Sheffield, this weekend following a tremendous start to the year.

Last weekend, he improved his indoor personal best again by one centimetre as he cleared 2.17m to win the B event at the International High Jump Festival in Hustopece, Czech Republic.

The leap, which added one centimetre to his previous indoor best set last month when winning the Wales Indoor title, is now just one centimetre below his lifetime best set at the World Junior Championships last summer “It was a difficult competition with a really weak start but I managed to dig myself out of a very deep hole,” said Gale.

“I had an amazing time and I really hope I am invited again next year.”

It was Gale’s first international gold representing England.