TOM DRUCE is seldom slow in coming forward, which in running is a good habit to have.

After all, you need to hit the front at some point to win, or if it is a record you are after then coming forward at a rapid rate of knots is a necessity.

Back in late June, Druce, 21 (pictured) , put his neck on the line by talking up his prospects of succeeding in an attempt at an island record of 38 years vintage, but belied the iffy conditions at Foote’s Lane and smashed the mark.

It was no ordinary mark either. The fact that it had stood for nearly 40 years gives a big clue to that.

Keith Falla had run 79.6sec. for the 600m at Crystal Palace in July 1970 and matched it two years later at the same venue.

Sadly, this first local legend of the running track was dead within three years, killed by a drink-driver while training in New Zealand.

At the start of the year, Druce’s best for the distance was 81.5 – good but not top notch and representative of the standing of a runner who narrowly failed to get the green light for the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.