martyn rooney

I am interested to know if any body knows why Martyn Rooney is performing so poorly at the moment,
in the past he was showing himself to be a exciting prospect .

I asked Lsabre the exact same question yesterday. After Beijing where he ran that 44.60 i was thinking he was a possible future world champion and would be a serious contender in 2012. But he seems to have went the wrong direction development wise, doesnt realy seem like bettering his PB any time soon.

Rooney's progress after Beijing was halted by an injury-blighted season in 2009 where he just scraped into the World Champs and was not fully fit when he competed there either.

I hold that he was a better athlete last season but a badly judged semifinal at the Europeans in Barcelona left him short of what he could have possibly achieved. But he showed character in the final to win bronze from the inside lane, losing gold in the final strides, which was the best performance I've ever seen of his even if it wasn't inside 45 secs.

This season he looked on the way to a breakthrough during a lenghty UK Athletics camp in LA where he marginally missed out on a big PB of 20.87 secs (2.1m/sec wind) and had earlier ran a solid 45.5 leg in a 4x400m relay. So I don't know what has reduced him to running three times in the 46.1 secs so far although conditions were windy, maybe a little chilly, in Germany yesterday.

I think it's way too early to dismiss him in any way, things like that happen to so many athletes, and the UK Trials alone are a good six weeks away. He's laid good foundations during the winter and spring so once he slots into his stride he's going to run faster than ever before.

I hope he does return to form, after the 100m the 400 is my favourite event to watch and Rooney was one of my favourite athletes.

He still has the second fastest 4x400 leg ever ran by a Brit (43.7) to Mark Richardsons 43.57 in Athens. He is one of the few top sprinters in this country who has time on his hands.

I have faith in him. New British record at or before London.