SHOEBURY sprint hurdler Joseph Agbodza endured a chastening race at the UK Athletics Championships on Sunday after hitting a barrier when he was in contention for a place in the final.
The 21-year-old Agbodza, who was representing for Southend AC in Manchester, was closing in on a third-place finish which would have seen him line up in his second national outdoor final in as many years.
Under pressure from West Cheshire’s Ewan Bradley, however, Agbodza admitted he lost concentration at a key moment.
It was then that Agbodza clattered the seventh hurdle, crashing to the ground as his chances of reaching back-to-back national outdoor finals disappeared.
He said: “I lost focus for a split second.
“I saw someone coming up in one of the lanes next to me – it was a slight glance.
“I know how to run a fast race and I should have just trusted myself, to be honest; I need to watch it back and see what was going on.
"I’m just so disappointed right now because I would have fancied myself to go to the final and do pretty well – but that’s sprint hurdles."
The Nottingham Trent computer science student, who commutes to Loughborough to train with an elite hurdles squad, will train in Southend and iron out some technical aspects of his hurdling over the rest of the summer before he begins his final year of university.
“I need to work on the latter stages of the race; me and my coach have been working on my turnover and how close I am to the hurdle," he said.
"That’s been the main focus for a couple of weeks now."
Before his studies resume, the British University indoor 60m hurdles champion will look to race several times before the end of the season - including the England Senior Championships in Chelmsford in two weeks’ time.
“I’ll run again – I need to redeem myself after that," he said.
“I knew today would be a chance for me, because I have been running at 14sec and I knew the calibre of the athletes coming.
“I think I just let the pressure get to me a little bit – again, the season’s not over and there are still races to go.”
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