Antonio Alkana

“I can always look back at my races, see what I did wrong, and work on how to perfect it, then get better. I just want to make it into the final of a major competition and whatever happens, happens, because it is so unpredictable in a final, and anything can happen in a technical race like the 110m hurdles”

“My long-term goal is to work towards podium finishes and medals at the Commonwealth Games, World Championships and Olympics. That would be amazing, and it won’t come easy, but with hard work, belief and trust, I think it can happen”

“To be honest, it didn’t come as a surprise at all. I could feel it in the warm-up, and I had been running times like that in training, so I just had to perform on the day. My coach had told me I was going to be the one to break the record, and in training you could see I was a lot stronger than last year, so we knew it would come this year”

“Training is a lot of hard work, but I have the hunger to improve every year, even if it’s just 0.01 seconds. It’s still an improvement, and I trust my coach and his guidance to get me there”

“My coach and I worked hard to get where I am now. We worked on speed for a few years, and then focused on technique, but there is still room for improvement”

“I didn’t perform as well as I would have liked, but I have been a bit inconsistent, so the main goal is to be more consistent, and that experience will help me going forward. But most important is that I really enjoyed the experience of going up against the best in the world in Rio, and look forward to doing it again”

“All the hard work at training sessions over the years has finally paid off. I never gave up and knew one day I would reach my dream of competing on the international stage”

“My European performances thus far haven’t been great but I’m still happy with the outcome of my races. I’m working on a few technical things and hopefully, it can work out and my times will start dropping. It was my first Commonwealth Games and I was satisfied with my results there. In January I tore my hamstring so my build-up to the Commonwealth Games wasn’t that smooth”

“This is a great competition because it’s the best athletes in the world going up against each other. I’m looking forward to competing against the athletes from the seven countries and to going out there and giving my all”

“I think it's one of my best seasons at the National Champs. I didn't run 13.3 I think for the past four years. At the National Champs, I did it in the heat and the final, both very messy races. Where the last time I did 13.3 was in clean races”

“3,04 away, I think if I run a clean race I have a good start, I should get it. The next race would be in Europe. I'm not sure when but I think I might race on the 24th. Then I'm on the waiting list for Rabat Diamond League”

“I think I've had a lot of speed in my legs lately. My coach has been implementing over-speeding again in training. I haven't done it for about four years. I need to control the speed between hurdles and not run into them then I should be fine”