Ben Coghlan is a young man in a hurry. Fortunately for the 19-year-old, an ability to cover 100 metres in less than 11 seconds gives him an edge over most others.

Actually, 10.79 seconds to be precise was all it took for the Bristol & West AC sprinter to cover the distance to win the Avon County title and defeat his long-time rival Jamie Brock, from Yate.

But that's not good enough for Coghlan. The Backwell-based junior believes there is lot more to come this season as he begins to reap the benefits of a more intensive training schedule at the University of Bath.

"This year I have started training under coach Colin Bovell at Bath and that has really helped me a lot," said Coghlan.

"I had a great base from Chris Millard (North Somerset AC coach), who helped me from the start as a youngster, but now Colin is giving me that extra bit.

"At the university, I can see him five times a week and obviously that helps. I have also started weight training properly for the first time and I am really feeling the benefit of that.

"I am a lot stronger and that shows in the finish of races. In the Avon Championships, I finished very strongly and held my form to the line, which was very pleasing."

Coghlan's victory in the Avon Championships was the first time he had broken the magical 11 seconds barrier – his previous best was 11.02secs. But in the UK Rankings, the time has been marked down as wind-assisted as the trackside wind-gauge wasn't working and conditions were favourable.

But that hasn't dented Coghlan's confidence or self-belief that he can repeat that performance, if not better it, in the weeks ahead when the season really gets going.

"We aimed to have two peaks this summer, the first being the British Students' Championships and the second the England Athletics Under-20 Championships," added Coghlan. "I'm third in the UK Rankings at the moment and, while that will probably change a lot before the championships, and there will be guys coming out and running 10.5secs, I'm looking forward to improving myself.

"This is only my second year of proper training, so I know I have a lot more to come."

And like all sprinters Coghlan is in a hurry to show it.