The Electronic Telegraph Friday 27 July 2001 Tom Knight IWAN THOMAS saw his determination and ingenuity pay off this week when he achieved the 400 metres qualifying time for next month's World Championships in Edmonton at a low-key athletics meeting in Watford. Thomas appeared to have missed his chance for selection for the individual event after he could manage only 45.82sec at Sunday's international meeting at Crystal Palace. It looked like he had run out of time. But, come Monday morning, he was determined to give it one last throw. He found out that there was a British Milers' Club meeting on Wednesday night. Of course he could compete, they said. The problem was that there was no 400m event. Undeterred, Thomas rang round his friends and training partners, including Paul Slythe and Tim Bailey, organised his own race and won in a time of 45.70sec - 0.02 inside the time required to compete with the world's best in Canada next week. He is waiting to hear if the International Amateur Athletic Federation's technical committee will make him a special case and allow him to take the injured Daniel Caines's place in the individual 400m. After two years of battling back from injury, the European and Commonwealth champion may have proved a point but he managed to do it a good 24 hours after the World Championships' entry deadline. After all, the place to run that fast was in front of 17,000 cheering fans at the British Grand Prix at Crystal Palace, where every athlete knew it was their last chance to make the team - not at Watford's Woodside Stadium, on a night when most of the British team were strapped into their economy seats and on their way to Canada. But athletes are notorious for making things difficult for themselves. Thomas is no exception and, in a way, the race on Wednesday night is testimony to his perseverance and pride. He knew people were writing him off, claiming that two years was more than enough time for him to have shown some semblance of his best form. When he finished only seventh in the European Cup last month in Bremen, the same critics suggested he would never recapture the strength and speed he showed in 1998. Thomas thought otherwise. Already selected for the 4 x 400m relay in Edmonton, he wanted to prove to himself that he could still cut it. He said: "I ran badly at Crystal Palace. I didn't go off hard enough. So I rang the BMC organisers and asked if they could put on a race. They told me if I could get another seven runners they would. I've got my training partners to thank for travelling up to Watford. They made it happen." Eamonn Condon www.RunnersGoal.com
