Chris Clarke (sprinter)

Last updated

Christopher Clarke
MBE
Chris Clarke Rio2016.jpg
Christopher Clarke, Rio 2016
Personal information
NationalityEnglish
Born (1990-01-25) 25 January 1990 (age 34)
London, England
Height1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Weight67 kg (148 lb)
Sport
Sport Athletics
Event(s) 200 metres, 400 metres
ClubMarshall Milton Keynes A.C
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)100 m – 10.45 (2007)
200 m – 20.22 (2013)
400 m – 45.59 (2009) [1]
Medal record
Representing Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain
World Indoor Championships
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2010 Doha 4 × 400 m relay
European Junior Championships
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2009 Novi Sad 400 m
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2009 Novi Sad 4 × 400 m relay
World Youth Championships
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2007 Ostrava 400 m
World Junior Athletics Championships
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2006 Beijing 4 × 400 m relay
Para-athletics
Paralympic Games
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2016 Rio W 100 m T11
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2016 Rio W 200 m T11
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2020 Tokyo Mixed 4 × 100 m relay

Christopher Clarke MBE (born 25 January 1990) is an English elite athlete sprinter who has often represented Great Britain and Northern Ireland. At club level he represents Marshall Milton Keynes AC and is also higher claim to Newham and Essex Beagles A.C. [2]

Contents

Career

At the 2006 Beijing World Junior Athletics Championships Clarke won a bronze medal in the 4 × 400 metres relay. [3] In 2007 he finished first in the 400 metres final of the World Youth Championships to win the gold medal. [4] On 24 July 2009 he won two gold medals (400 m and 4 × 400 m) at the European Junior Championships in a new personal best of 45.59 seconds. 2009 also saw Chris selected for his first Senior Great Britain national team for the World athletics championships in Berlin.

2010 saw him compete as part of the 4 × 400 m relay team who later went on to claim a bronze medal at the world indoor athletics championships in Doha.

In 2011, Chris returned from injury to finish second at the British Championships and qualify for the World Athletics Championships. The GB relay team qualified for the final with 3:00.38 (Chris running 44.99 split). The team later went on to place seventh in the final with a time of 3:01.16. [5]

2012 saw Chris finish 3rd in the 200m at the British Athletics Championships. He went on to represent Great Britain at the European championships later that year finishing 6th in the final. He missed qualification for the 2012 summer Olympics.

2013 saw Chris run two personal best in the 200m to finish second in the national senior ranking with 20.22 (-1.7).

In 2014, Chris reached the semi-final of the men's 200m at the commonwealth Games held in Glasgow.

February 2016, Clarke began competing as a guide runner with Paralympic silver medalist Libby Clegg. [6] They won the gold medal in the 100 m – T11 & 200 m - T11 events at the Rio Paralympics.

Clarke was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to sport. [7]

In 2021, Clarke won a silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics in the Mixed 4 x 100m relay, again as a guide runner for Clegg. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darren Campbell</span> British sprinter and coach (born 1973)

Darren Andrew Campbell, is a British former sprint athlete. He was the sprint coach at Wasps Rugby Club for the 2015–16 season. He competed in the 100 metres and 200 metres, as well as the 4 × 100 metres relay.

Kathryn Jane Cook is a former elite athlete, specialising in sprint and sprint relays. She is one of the most successful female sprinters in British athletics history. She is three-times an Olympic bronze medallist, including at 400 metres in Los Angeles 1984. Her other individual achievements include winning the 200m at the 1981 Universiade, finishing second in the 100m at the 1981 World Cup, and winning a bronze medal in the 200m at the 1983 World Championships. She is also three-times a winner of the British Athletics Writers' Association Female Athlete of the Year Award (1980–82).

Since the early 20th century, Jamaica has won 42 Commonwealth Golds, 14 World Championship Golds and 17 Olympic gold medals in athletics alone. Jamaica has a population of 2.85 million people, making it the 138th most populous country in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Libby Clegg</span> Scottish Paralympic sprinter

Elizabeth Gemma Clegg, is a British Paralympic sprinter and tandem track cyclist who has represented both Scotland and Great Britain at international events. She represented Great Britain in the T12 100m and 200m at the 2008 Summer Paralympics, winning a silver medal in the T12 100m race. She won Gold in Rio at the 2016 Paralympic Games in 100m T11 where she broke the world record and T11 200m, beating the previous Paralympic record in the process, thus making her a double Paralympic champion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lex Gillette</span> American Paralympic athlete

Elexis LaVelle "Lex" Gillette is a blind Paralympic athlete from Raleigh, North Carolina in the United States competing in T11 (track) and F11 (field) events for the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonnie Peacock</span> British athlete (born 1993)

Jonathan Peacock MBE is an English sprint runner. An amputee, Peacock won gold at the 2012 Summer Paralympics and 2016 Summer Paralympics, representing Great Britain in the T44 men's 100 metres event. He won a bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Paralympics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aaron Brown (sprinter)</span> Canadian sprinter (b. 1992)

Aaron Brown is a Canadian sprinter who specializes in the 100 and 200 metres. As part of Canada's 4×100 m relay team, he is the 2024 Olympic gold medalist, 2020 Olympic silver medalist, 2016 Olympic bronze medalist and the 2022 World champion. Brown has also won two World bronze medals as part of Canada's 4×100 m relay teams in 2013 and 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olivia Breen</span> Welsh Paralympic athlete

Olivia Breen is a Welsh Paralympian athlete, who competes for Wales and Great Britain mainly in T38 sprint and F38 long jump events. She qualified for the 2012 Summer Paralympics and was selected for the T38 100m and 200m sprint and was also part of the T35-38 women's relay team. She has also represented Wales at the 2014, 2018 and 2022 Commonwealth Games winning gold in the F38 Long Jump in 2018 and gold in the T37/38 100m in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephanie Millward</span> British Paralympic swimmer (born 1981)

Stephanie Millward is a British former Paralympic swimmer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Clegg (swimmer)</span> British Paralympic swimmer

James Clegg is a British Paralympic swimmer. Clegg competes in S12 events and qualified for the 2012 Summer Paralympics, winning the bronze in the men's 100 m butterfly event. He is the brother of fellow para-swimmer Stephen Clegg and para-athlete Libby Clegg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xavier Porras</span> Spanish Paralympic athlete

Xavier Porras Santana is a Spanish paralympic sprinter and jumper who belongs to F.C. Barcelona and competes in the T11 / B1 category for blind athletes or athletes with a very reduced vision.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2013 IPC Athletics World Championships</span> Paralympic track and field event

The 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships was the biggest track and field competition for athletes with a disability since the 2012 Summer Paralympics. It was held in Lyon, France, and lasted from 20 to 28 July. Around 1,100 athletes competed, from 94 different countries. The event was held in the Stade du Rhône located at the Parc de Parilly in Vénissieux, in Lyon Metropolis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brent Lakatos</span> Canadian wheelchair racer

Brent Lakatos is a Canadian wheelchair racer in the T53 classification. Lakatos has represented Canada at four Summer Paralympics, and at the 2012 Games he won three silver medals in the sprint and mid-distance events. In 2013 Lakatos reached the pinnacle of his sport when he collected four gold medals at the IPC Athletics World Championships and became world champion at his classification in the 100m, 200m and 400m events.

Paula Dunn, is an English former sprinter who competed in the 100 metres, 200 metres and 4 x 100 metres relay. She represented Great Britain in all three events at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul. She is a five-time Commonwealth Games medallist, including winning silver (1986) and bronze (1994) in the 100 metres. During the 1990s, she competed as Paula Thomas. Her personal bests of 11.15 secs in the 100 metres and 22.69 secs in the 200 metres, were the fastest times run by a British female sprinter during the 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Felipe Gomes (sprinter)</span> Brazilian Paralympic athlete

Felipe de Sousa Gomes, known as Felipe Gomes, is a Paralympic athlete from Brazil. He mainly competes in category T11 sprint events. At the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London he took the gold in the T11 200m sprint.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kadeena Cox</span> British paralympic athlete (born 1991)

Kadeena Cox is a parasport athlete competing in T38 para-athletics sprint events and C4 para-cycling and British television presenter. She was part of the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships and the 2016 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships, in which she won world titles in the T37 100m and C4 500m time trial respectively.

The Women's 100 metres T11 event at the 2016 Summer Paralympics took place at the Estádio Olímpico João Havelange between 8 and 9 September. It featured 16 athletes from 11 countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Dean (swimmer)</span> English swimmer

Thomas William Darnton Dean is a British competitive freestyle swimmer. He is a triple Olympic gold medallist, winning gold individually in 200 metre freestyle at the 2020 Summer Olympics and as part of a team in 4 × 200 m freestyle relay at the 2020 Summer Olympics and the 2024 Summer Olympics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher O'Donnell (athlete)</span> Irish sprinter (born 1998)

Christopher O'Donnell is an Irish track and field athlete competing in sprinting events. He was part of the Irish Mixed 4x400m team who won a gold medal at the 2024 European Athletics Championships. He represented Ireland at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in the Mixed 4 × 400 m relay, where he was part of the first ever Irish team to run in an Olympic final, and competed in the same event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. He was also part of the team who reached the final of the 2022 and 2023 World Championships. He is the current Irish U20 record holder in the 400m, his personal best of 45.26 seconds sits joint-2nd on the Irish all-time list and he is a 5-time National 400m champion.

Lahja Ishitile is a Namibian Paralympic T11 track and field athlete.

References

  1. "Christopher Clarke". iaaf.org.
  2. "Home". Milton Keynes Athletic Club. Archived from the original on 6 May 2019. Retrieved 4 June 2009.
  3. British Athletics. "British Athletics Official WebsiteDouble bronze for men's relays at World Juniors". Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 4 June 2009.
  4. British Athletics. "British Athletics Official Website – World Youth Championships: Day 3 report". Archived from the original on 30 July 2011. Retrieved 4 June 2009.
  5. "SWISS TIMING: Headquarters and Affiliates". sportresult.com.[ dead link ]
  6. Hudson, Elizabeth (23 February 2016). "Libby Clegg: Paralympic sprinter targets Rio medal with new guide". BBC Sport. BBC. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
  7. "No. 61803". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2016. p. N16.
  8. "Final results" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 September 2021. Retrieved 10 August 2022.