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Tonbridge's Tom Bosworth gearing up for Olympics with new British best in indoor 3,000m race walk at National Championships

Tom Bosworth won the National Indoor 3,000m race walk by more than two minutes at Sheffield Arena on Sunday and immediately turned his thoughts to this summer's Rio Olympics, writes Alan Newman.

Bosworth surged away from the field to slice 17 seconds off his previous best to retain his national title in 10min58.21sec and become the first British athlete to go under 11 minutes indoors.

The 26-year-old also took the British record for 5,000m indoors down to 18min54.18sec in Bratislava on January 31 and holds British walking records outdoors for 5k (19.16) and 10k (39.36) in times that many runners would be proud to call their personal bests.

Tom Bosworth became the first British racewalker to break the 11-minute barrier indoors at 3,000m Picture: Stephen Pond/British Athletics
Tom Bosworth became the first British racewalker to break the 11-minute barrier indoors at 3,000m Picture: Stephen Pond/British Athletics

“The really serious stuff starts now,” said Bosworth, who is coached by Andi Drake at Tonbridge AC.

“I have got the 20km Olympic qualifying time and I want to get better and improve my personal best.

"I want to go to the Olympics knowing that I can be up there with the best. I have been getting quicker and quicker over short distances and now I want to do it over 20km and show that I can do it internationally as well.”

The world record of 10.31.42 is held by 2003 World Championships 50k bronze medallist Andreas Erm, and Bosworth might have been much closer had he not enjoyed the closing stages by waving to the crowd on his way to victory.

He added: “I love racing indoors in front of a home crowd. I want to make race walking really popular so people can see it is a fun event and that I can walk faster than most people can run and help people connect to that. You cannot just be boring on the track.”

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