Can Pickering be Britain's track talisman like Coe?
By NEIL WILSON
Last updated at 11:19 31 January 2007
Has British athletics experienced Groundhog Day? Thirty years to the month since Sebastian Coe emerged indoors as the sport's salvation, Craig Pickering has thrust himself forward in similar guise.
The sport's most glorious era began when Coe won his first indoor race of note six months after Britain's athletes had won a single bronze medal at the 1976 Olympics, their lowest point until last year when they failed to win a single individual European title.
Read more
• Gallery: Tour of Qatar cycling crash
• Young Olympic dreamer Pickering beats his heroes and his nerves
Coe was to win a European indoor title later in that winter of 1977 and there are strong grounds now after Pickering's performance in the fivenation Norwich Union International in Glasgow for wondering whether he - at the same age of 20 - can emulate the feat when those championships come to Birmingham in March.
Not only did the man from Milton Keynes run his fourth personal best inside a month for the 60 metres, a time of 6.55sec which is the fastest anywhere in this fledgling winter season, but he also ran away from Jason Gardener, the most successful of Britain's indoor sprinters, and another of Britain's Olympic relay gold medallists, Mark Lewis-Francis.
After six wins in six appearances at the traditional curtain-raiser to the indoor season, Gardener, three-time winner of the European indoor title, was - in the words of coach Malcolm Arnold, who he shares at the University of Bath with Pickering - "shellshocked" to cross the line two strides and 0.15sec behind him.
Gardener may have been rusty after a 10-month competitive absence.
"That was not representative of his form," said Arnold and Gardener can restore his reputation as the Bath Bullet when the two meet on Saturday in Stuttgart.
But the face of British sprinting may have changed for ever. Gardener, at 30, as good as admitted it when he said: "He is a very professional young guy, very hungry and I'm sure he will continue this form right up to the European Indoor Championships."
Too many Britons have won the major junior titles and stalled as seniors. Dwain Chambers, Christian Malcolm and Lewis-Francis, who was European junior champion in 2001 but has not improved his best 60m time since, are the best-known three.
Pickering, the 2005 European junior champion, struggled to cope in his first senior year but Arnold proved right when he promised the sprinter in the autumn of 2005: "Give me 18 months and you'll be flying."
Pickering's physique has hardened and his starting has been transformed by Arnold's programme, improvements that should translate into another leap when he runs 100m in the summer.
Gardener never fully extended his genius over 60m - he was world champion in 2004 - to the outdoor distance.
Pickering, in contrast, believes himself to be a 100m runner who only learned to run the first half properly under Arnold and Gardener's guidance.
How far will he go? Arnold, who coached his first Olympic champion in 1972, said: "I'm not into making predictions, but Craig has all the attributes to make it to the top."
Pickering remains realistic about the 2012 Olympics. "I would hope to win a gold but it is five years until then, so I'm not going to look so far ahead. I have a lot of work to do yet before I am the finished article."
For the little it mattered, the match was a 50-point tie between Britain, Germany and the United States.
- 'I'm a happy manager': Van Gaal after win against Ipswich
- Arsenal fans tear down Spurs signs during north London derby
- Jose Mourinho keeping 'calm and quiet' over Costa suspension
- Fans fight with police officers after Tottenham vs Arsenal
- Fury tries to fight Klitschko during press conference
- 'Who's that?' Sam Burgess jokes about playing Scott Williams
- Wenger pleasantly surprised by Flamini goals against Spurs
- Mourinho: Kenedy played well against Walsall despite calf...
- Tyson Fury steals the show in Klitschko press conference
- Kapow! Tyson Fury dressed as Batman beats up The Joker
- Louis Van Gaal praises Martial's 'speed and composure'
- McAllister stands in for under-fire Rodgers after Carlisle...
- Jorge Mendes tops the list of Forbes' richest football...
- Wayne Rooney's performances remind me of Robin van Persie at...
- Jurgen Klopp is keen on Liverpool job and willing to end...
- Chelsea target Manchester United's Victor Valdes amid Asmir...
- Arsenal missed out on record-breaker Robert Lewandowski.....
- Manchester United held talks with Neymar! Barcelona...
- Phil Neville opens up about his Valencia coaching adventure:...
- Manchester United starlet Andreas Pereira relishes a...
- The unlikely men at the top of the Premier League...
- Chelsea youngster Kenedy proves his worth with latest...
- Manchester United's Luke Shaw tells Hector Moreno that...
- You're a girl. If you beat me, I'll give you $100,000... UFC...