Child's battle for supremacy thrills Gunnell

SALLY Gunnell, still the British 400-metre hurdles record-holder more than a decade after retiring, believes her event is back on the right track thanks to the rivalry between Scotland's Eilidh Child and Londoner Perri Shakes-Drayton.

The pair have some way to go before they can challenge Gunnell's mark of 52.74 seconds, which was a new world record back in 1993, but the former Olympic champion has been heartened by the way in which they have spurred each other on.

Now 23, Child held the British junior record and was unbeaten for two years. When she set her personal best of 55.17 she broke Sinead Dudgeon's Scottish record, which had stood for 11 years. Shakes-Drayton, meanwhile, clocked a new best of 54.91 last month. Both women are in the British team for next week's European Championships in Barcelona, and Gunnell is confident they can continue to improve together.

"Perri has run a really good time this year and just needs to believe in herself a bit more - she's been a bit up and down," Gunnell said yesterday. "Eilidh has been running really well too.

"What has been great is the depth of talent in the 400m. The more we can get behind pushing each other - that's what the sport has been missing. It's nice to say that there are a few in the 400 hurdles.

"I suppose I did do it on my own to an extent, but then I was racing against the world's best and that's what pushed me at the time. These girls are not quite being able to get to Grand Prix meetings all the time, but they're there for each other and hopefully in the next couple of years they can get to world class."

Gunnell thinks the British team as a whole will fare well in Barcelona, and sees it as a vital staging post en route to the London Olympics. "I think we should do really well. We've got some talent there and two years ahead of 2012 they should be doing well.

"It's about getting experience and performing, and if you don't do that now you're not going to do that in two years' time. These championships are about getting medals, gold medals. There are quite a few people up there, the likes of (400 flat runner] Martyn Rooney and (400 hurdler] Dai Green, in European terms who should be getting medals."

Gunnell was speaking at Edinburgh Zoo, where she was helping launch the 2010 First Monster Challenge, a 120km duathlon team relay around the shores of Loch Ness in September. "I've never been to that part of the world and I've always wanted to go," she said. "I'm not quite sure how I'm going to do, but it's going to be a great weekend."