OLYMPIC Games hopeful Danny Talbot will run his first 200m of the season in Germany on Sunday after a mystery stomach illness delayed the start of his European campaign, writes Kevin Fahey.

The 25-year-old Trowbridge Tornado will take on a strong field at the Sparkasssen Gala in Regensburg and will be looking for positive signs that not only has his training going well in the build-up to the Olympic trials at the end of the month, but also that his illness is behind him.

“I was in Formia (Italy) for a training camp with the British relay squad when I had a problem with my stomach and had to be taken to hospital for checks,” said Talbot.

“I didn’t feel great and at the time I was quite worried as no-one was sure what it was. I was given a course of anti-biotics and had to take a week off training, but it seems to be fine now.

“My fitness is back to where it was and in a way, perhaps it was a silver lining as it was my body’s way of telling me I needed a rest after a hard period of training in America. The rest has probably done me good.”

Against that background, Talbot is cautious about expecting too much from his first 200m race since reaching the semi-finals of the World Championships in Beijing last August.

“I feel I am capable of getting close to my personal best (20.27 seconds, recorded in that semi-final) but I am not too focused on the time this weekend,” added Talbot.

“Because I haven’t raced a 200m for such a long time, it is more about getting back into the competitive mode, of travelling and preparing for the event and then executing a good race.

“I am not putting too much pressure on myself.”

His illness scare notwithstanding, Talbot has clearly had a good winter under new coach Bene Blomkvist and was just one one-hundredth of a second outside his personal best for 100m when he clocked 10.15secs at the NTC/PURE Athletics Spring Invitational meeting in Clermont, Florida, at the end of April.

But it is the 200m that remains his target and the UK Rankings have already been livened up with a sizzling 19.95secs from 21-year-old Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake in America last month, which has thrown down the gauntlet to the likes of Talbot, Adam Gemili, James Ellington and Zharnel Hughes.

“I reckon there could be five or six of us in contention for the team this year whereas in the past, you could predict the top two,” said Talbot.