RHIANNA PARRIS-SMITH ‘ONE TARGET DOWN, PLENTY MORE TO GO!'

My goal for the past month was to break 12.3 seconds for the flying 200m outdoors – and good news, I achieved it! At the SES Sprinters League at Herne Hill Velodrome on 5 June, I got my time down to 12.1 seconds. Though the time was good, my racing wasn’t brilliant – I’m still trying to get to grips with gearing and tactics. To cut myself some slack, I’m still very inexperienced compared to most of those I’m racing against, so these races are a valuable learning experience. Hopefully, the times will keep coming down; my goal is 11.8 seconds by the end of the year.

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As Dan Bigham pointed out in his Start at the End feature (CW 17 June), the big goal for me is to get selected for the British Cycling Team Academy – and to do that, I need to put in some performances that are impossible to ignore. Right now, with Covid restrictions extended and very little racing on the cards, all I can do is keep working hard. I’ve been making good progress in the gym: on the trap bar deadlift, I’m up to three sets of three at 160kg, and I’m now focusing on pushing up the weight of my squat.