RICHARD Kilty claimed a personal best in the 100m final at the Sainsbury’s Grand Prix, but the Stockton sprinter felt it was an opportunity missed.

The 25-year-old is the reigning World and European indoor champion over 60m but has struggled to translate that form outdoors in recent years.

But he showed signs that he might be on the verge of a breakthrough in Birmingham on Sunday, finishing fifth in the final in a personal best time of 10.05seconds.

Adam Gemili went under ten seconds for the first time in his career as he finished second in 9.97 before being stretchered off after a heavy fall.

And after seeing his compatriot break the ten-second barrier for the first time, Kilty is confident it is just a matter of time before he can follow suit.

“I am starting to find my feet outdoors but I am not going to try and rush it, by the looks of things I am getting faster every race, it’s a matter of when,” said Kilty, speaking at the event, a partnership with British Athletics that builds on Sainsbury’s support for the 2012 Paralympics and recognises that sport can unite and inspire children of all ages.

“I will break ten seconds for sure, it’s just a matter of time now.

“I just need to work on my starts, they have not been as good as they have been indoors and I think that once I get that and put the right race together it’s just a matter of time.

“I do feel it’s a bit of a missed opportunity, I would have liked to have been in the middle but I only have only got myself to blame for that for not running quick enough in the heat.”

Alnwick’s Laura Weightman finished third in the 1,500m on Sunday but her finishing time of 4:06.52 minutes was nearly five seconds behind the top two of Sifan Hassan and Abeba Aregawi and well outside her personal best.

And Weightman, the Commonwealth silver medallist over this distance from last summer, was at a loss to explain why she was so far behind her rivals.

“I'm not very happy with that, I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't run quite as quickly as I wanted to there,” she said.

“I think with the training that I have been doing that I can go quicker than that so hopefully it's an early season blow out and I can run quicker than that soon.

“I would love to run close to four minutes like last year and if I could dip under that then that would be really good.

“There are quick girls and Great Britain are doing really well at the moment with the middle distances and there's so many of us that are running well.

“Hopefully in Beijing I can be running well and start pushing to be competitive with the best in the world.

“It's a huge year and you want a big confidence boost going into the Olympic year.”

Elsewhere Middlesbrough’s Chris Tomlinson jumped a season’s best of 7.97m in the long jump but that was only good enough for seventh as his compatriot and his rival Greg Rutherford topped the pile.

And North Shields’ Ross Murray struggled to sixth in the men’s 1,500m race in a time of 3:40.54 minutes.

Sainsbury's is a proud partner of British Athletics. The partnership reflects Sainsbury's wider commitment to inspiring healthy lifestyles for all, and complements grassroots campaigns such as Active Kids and the Sainsbury's School Games. www.sainsburys.co.uk