ENGLAND Indoor champion Will Crisp admits this season might be a slow-burner after opening up with a below par performance at the British Milers’ Club Grand Prix in Watford.

The 18-year-old Swindon Harrier was far from happy with his first race of the season, not just with his time of 1mins 51.33secs to finish seventh in the B race, but also the manner of his run as he struggled to get involved in the race.

Crisp was at least able to put the run into context, and admitted that at the moment, running isn’t his top priority as he is chasing another big prize.

“I was disappointed with that as a season’s opener, but to be honest, I haven’t been doing the amount of training I need to do because of my A Level studies,” said Crisp.

“I have been sitting at a desk for seven hours a day studying. That is hardly conducive to racing fast time, but the exams are my priority for now.

“I have been accepted at Harvard University on an academic scholarship, so it is important I get good results to be able to take up that offer.

“It is not easy to get in there, so it is a great opportunity for me.”

While there has been an exodus of British juniors heading to America in recent years, most have been lured across the Atlantic with athletics scholarships.

As Crisp’s coach Bryan Clinton pointed out, academic scholarships are few and far between.

Clinton said: “Will is a clever lad and has put a lot of importance on his degree in America and getting a place at Harvard is like going to Oxford or Cambridge here.

“He is trying to fit in his training and racing around his studies and it is not easy.”

After his excellent winter, when he improved his personal best to 1:50.42 after being invited to the British Senior Championships, Crisp had been hoping to launch a bid to make the British team for the World Junior Championships in Finland.

There is still time for that to happen, but the goal of making sure he gets to Harvard will make it an even harder challenge than it already was.

Clinton added: “The qualifying standard for the World Juniors is 1min 48.2secs, which was always going to be a reach, but Will and I will have a chat and see what he can do.

“Will needs races because you can’t just turn out and run 1:48 in your first race. He hasn’t raced since the indoors in February, and that’s a long time. We’ll try to find a few more events for him but his exams are the priority for now.”

  • JAMES Donald produced a terrific performance to finish runner-up in the Guernsey Ultra 33 miles around the island race last week.

Donald, who works at the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council in Swindon, had high hopes of winning but local runner and ultra distance specialist Tian Erwee proved too strong and broke his own record spectacularly as he completed the course in 4hrs 19mins 44secs.

“I was hoping to win, but after the first checkpoint, I was 10 minutes down. That grew to 20 minutes at the next checkpoint,” said Donald.

“I knew then that I wouldn’t catch the winner and was also well clear of the guy in third, so decided to chill out and enjoy the run.”

  • SWINDON Harrier Ben Cole finished 22nd and first Wiltshire runner in the Vitality London 10k road race on Monday in 31:01ses.

In the women’s race, former Commonweal School student Catie O’Donoghue, from Lakeside, broke 40 minutes for the first time with a PB of 39:28 for 89th place.