Forrester Flies in Manchester!
Report by Tom Gayle
City of Stoke A.C’s Amanda
Forrester really rose to the occasion
in the event that is gripping the country, the Commonwealth
Games. The pressure of her first major individual
appearance and competing in her home nation didn’t
daunt the 23 year old as she made a major break through
in senior international athletics by placing 5th in a
world class, let alone Commonwealth
field.
Many athletes at the start of the
season, winter training or even
years before set themselves a target for when and
where they want to peak. For Forrester this year was all
about the Commonwealths and she and her coach Keith
Fradley got everything just right by ensuring that Amanda
produced the best form of her life in these championships.
Returning to the track where she
placed second English athlete
in the Commonwealth trials, Forrester got better and
better with each round. She ran a seasons best of 11.44
in the opening round when placing second to the new
Jamaican sprint sensation Veronica Campbell. In the semi
she equalled her personal best of 11.37 when placing
third behind serious medal contenders Sevatheda Fynes
(Bahamas) and Susanthika Jayansinghe (Sri
Lanka), and just in front of English team mate Shani Anderson.
In the final, she was joined by
both her English teammates,
Anderson and Abiodum Oyepitan, Forrester suffered
the tough draw of lane one. Unfazed by this she was
able to produce the run of her career to date when placing
5th in a new personal best of 11.34 which takes her
to 16th on the UK all time list for the event.
The race itself was won impressively by Debbie Ferguson of
the Bahamas in a new personal and championship best of
10.91 with Campbell second (11.00) and her teammate Fynes
third (11.07).
Despite only being ranked 20th
in the Commonwealth going into
the competition, Amanda optimised the desire of
all the home based athletes to rise to the occasion in front
of their own crowd, and at 23 if her improvement over
recent years is anything to go by she is set for an even
brighter future.
Full results and pictures from the
games can be found at http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport3/commonwealthgames2002/hi/athletics/default.stm
Results
Women 100m
Heat 2
2. Amanda Forrester (England) 11.44 (-0.5)
Semi Final 2
3. Forrester 11.37 (+0.8)
Final
5. Forrester 11.34 (+1.5)
