Dai Greene has expressed his frustration after a poor start to the 400m hurdles final resulted in him finishing third at the British Athletics Championships in Birmingham on Sunday.
The Welshman clipped the first hurdle, but was able to claim bronze in a race that was won by Niall Flannery, who took gold last season.
Greene, who has been struggling with a calf injury, clocked a time of 50.82 seconds in his first outdoor competition this season.
How do you feel about that? You seemed to finish strong.
"It wasn't a great race - I smashed the first hurdle really, really badly. I struggled to stay on my feet but after that I fought back as best as I could. I gave way too much in that first hurdle - it's the level of fitness though, you can't make mistakes and get away with them, but hopefully in the next few weeks I can iron out that technical area and look to build from that. It's been a mixed bag in terms of results, but it's lovely to be back racing."
Are you happy, as you say, just to be involved again?
"Yeah, I'd like to do a better performance because I know I can do a decent race quicker. It was just poor execution, but that has been a problem in training in the last week or so. I'll get that right and in a few more weeks hopefully I can get on top of it."
Is it just a case of working hard in training to correct those technical errors?
"I've been out for a while really, really struggling. It's knocked me back a bit and I rushed to get back in time for this. Now I can just build on a steady speed over the next two or three weeks and the performances should come as the confidence and intensity comes back in training. I went for it today at the start, but I haven't been at the speed and on the first hurdle I tried to get on it with my right leg - very technical stuff, but if I'm more powerful and I get it right in training, it should show in the race."
Liam Apicella
