PLYMOUTH hurdler David King has already turned his thoughts to next year after ending his 2016 season at the weekend.
King brought the curtain down on a successful campaign by finishing third in the 110m hurdles at the Great North CityGames in Newcastle behind his GB team-mate David Omoregie and American Jarret Easton.
“I’m all done now. That was the last one,” said King.
“Overall the season was really good. Newcastle was a nice way to end it, even though I did not run particularly well, but it was a good competition.”
King had gone into 2016 hoping to make the jump from promising under-23 athlete to an established senior.
His main goal had been to represent Great Britain at a senior championship.
And he managed to do that by competing at the European Championships in Amsterdam, where he reached the semi-finals.
He also could not have come closer to reaching the World Indoor Championships and the Olympic Games.
He was just 0.01 of a second off the World Indoor Championship time and ‘officially’ 0.07 seconds off qualifying for the Olympics. He did actually run inside the Olympic qualifying time in Switzerland but it was not accepted as there was a problem with the electronic timing.
King, who only turned 22 in June, though, was pleased with his campaign.
“This year has been a massive confidence booster and has set me up nice for next year,” he said.
“I pretty much achieved the goals I set out to this year.
“I wanted to be more consistent, that was one of my goals, and I think it’s fair to say I’ve done – I equalled my PB three times.
“Obviously, racing at the Europeans was the big one for me this year. I’m hoping that gives me a fairly good chance of getting on some funding and opening a few more doors in that department.”
King worked part-time at a hotel in Bath during this season. However, he found that tough to combine with his training and also did not enjoy it.
He is likely to find out in October if he will get funding for 2017, where he hopes to continue his impressive progression.
On his plans for the winter, King said: “It’s all about training hard and staying injury free.
“Then I’ll go straight into the indoor season. There’s the European Indoor Championships next year. That’s in Belgrade. That’s the first goal.
“I don’t know what the standards are for that but I would imagine I probably have already got it, but I would like to go there and do well, rather than just go there.
“Then in the summer there’s London 2017, the World Championships. I would imagine that standard will be fairly similar to the Olympics. That’s my biggest goal really for next year.”