Lawrence Clarke (hurdler)

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Sir
Lawrence Clarke
Lawrence Clarke prepares for the men's 100m hurdles final (7890479746).jpg
Clarke at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Personal information
Full nameCharles Lawrence Somerset Clarke
NationalityBritish/American
Born (1990-03-12) 12 March 1990 (age 34)
Westminster, London, England
Height1.87 m (6 ft 1+12 in)
Weight77 kg (170 lb; 12.1 st)
Sport
SportMen's athletics
Event110 m Hurdles
Club US Créteil-Lusitanos (France), Windsor, Slough, Eton and Hounslow Athletic Club [1] (England).
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)110 m Hurdles (U20): 13.37
60 m Hurdles: 7.59
110 m Hurdles: 13.31/13.14w
Medal record
Representing Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  Great Britain
European Athletics Junior Championships
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2009 Novi Sad 110 m hurdles
European Athletics U23 Championships
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2011 Ostrava 110 m hurdles
Representing Flag of England.svg  England
Commonwealth Games
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2010 Delhi 110 m hurdles

Sir Charles Lawrence Somerset Clarke, 7th Baronet, OLY (born 12 March 1990 [2] ) is a former professional 110 m hurdler who finished fourth in the London Olympic Games 110 m hurdles final. He is the son of Sir Toby Clarke, 6th Baronet and succeeded to the baronetcy on his father's death in 2019. [3] He served as Captain of the Great Britain Athletics Team at the 2015 European Athletics Indoor Championships and was coached in Bath by Malcolm Arnold. [4] He was coached in Paris by Giscard Samba Koundys for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. He currently works for Citigroup in London. He is also a member of the American Roosevelt family.

Contents

Education

Born in Westminster, London, [5] [6] Clarke was educated at two independent schools: at Summer Fields School in the city of Oxford and Eton College in Berkshire. [7] He went on to study Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Bristol, gaining a Second class honours, upper division (2:1). [8] He studied at the University of Bath for a master's degree in Management with a specialisation in UK Targeted Absolute Return Equity Fund Management. [9]

Family

Clarke is the son of Sir Tobias Clarke, 6th Baronet. His sister is Theo Clarke, MP. Clarke's maternal grandfather was the Conservative MP Somerset de Chair. He takes his name Lawrence from his American ancestor Abbott Lawrence. [5]

Junior athletics career

Clarke was in fourth place in the 110 m hurdles at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, India. He was also the British University (BUCS) champion in the 60 m hurdles (2009) with a time of 7.83 seconds and 110 m Champion (2010) in a time of 13.85 seconds. [10]

Clarke held the No. 1 spot on the British All Time list for the Under 20 men's 3"3 110 m Hurdles until 23 May 2010. He established a new National Junior Record with a personal best of 13.37 seconds whilst also winning gold at European Junior Athletics Championships in July 2009, in Novi Sad, Serbia. [11] [12]

Senior athletics career

In June 2010, Clarke won the UK National Under-23 Title in a wind-assisted time (+2.5 m/s) of 13.60secs. [13] He successfully defended this title in June 2011 in his season debut that year.

On 8 October 2010, Clarke won the bronze medal at the XIX Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. He finished third behind two other English hurdlers: Andy Turner (2010 European Champion) and William Sharman. It is the first time in history that England have completed a 1-2-3 clean sweep in the 110 m hurdles. [14]

Clarke became national champion when he won the UK Senior 110 m hurdles title in 13.58s in July 2011, [15] earning him a place on the UK team at the World Championships in Daegu.

He competed at the 2011 World Athletics Championships in Daegu, South Korea where he went out in the first round with a time of 13.65s (-0.2 m/s). The winner of his heat was Jason Richardson who went on to win the Championships after Dayron Robles, the 2008 Olympic Champion and World Record holder, was disqualified after the final.

2012 Summer Olympics

On 24 June 2012, he achieved selection for Great Britain in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. [16] He ran a new personal best of 13.31 (-0.5 m/s) in his Olympic Semi final on 8 August. As a result, he qualified as the only European for the 110 m Men's Hurdles Final as a fastest loser. Running from lane 2 in the final he finished an unexpected fourth place with a time of 13.39 seconds beating the 2009 World Champion, Ryan Brathwaite, into fifth. [17]

Post London

He broke his wrist in the winter of 2012 followed by a series of hamstring tears that saw him miss high level competition in 2013. [18] He returned to International competition in 2014 finishing eighth at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. Two weeks later he competed at the European Athletics Championships in Zurich only to tear his hamstring five minutes before the call room for the European Final. [19]

In March 2015 he was appointed Team Captain of Great Britain at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague. [20] He finished fifth in the 60 m hurdles. That summer he competed at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in the Bird's Nest Stadium in Beijing exiting in the semi-finals.

After the World Championships he made the decision to leave Malcolm Arnold (athletics coach) OBE and Bath and moved to Paris to train with Giscard Samba Koundys and Dimitri Bascou.

He competed at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Portland, Oregon, U.S. in March 2016 just missing out on the Men's 60 m Hurdles final. His training partner Dimitri Bascou went on to win the bronze medal.

In July 2016 he was selected to represent Great Britain at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He finished 11th, missing out on the final by 0.05 of a second.

In 2016 he joined Citigroup, [2] [21] before becoming managing director of Duration Capital Solutions in 2022.

Personal bests

EventBestLocationDate
60 metres hurdles 7.59sMondeville, France7 February 2015
110 metres hurdles 13.31sLondon, England8 August 2012
110 metres hurdles (wind assisted)13.14s (+4.7 m/s)Madrid, Spain7 July 2012

International competitions

YearCompetitionVenuePositionEventNotes
2008 Commonwealth Youth Games Pune, India4th110 m hurdles (99 cm)14.23
2009 European Junior Championships Novi Sad, Serbia1st110 m hurdles (99 cm)13.37
2010 Commonwealth Games Delhi, India3rd110 m hurdles13.70
2011 European Indoor Championships Paris, France4th, SF 260 m hurdles7.74
European U23 Championships Ostrava, Czech Republic3rd110 m hurdles13.62
World Championships Daegu, South Korea5th, Heat 2110 m hurdles13.65
2012 Olympic Games London, United Kingdom4th110 m hurdles13.31
2014 Commonwealth Games Glasgow, United Kingdom8th110 m hurdles13.84
European Championships Zurich, SwitzerlandDNS, Final110 m hurdles-
2015 European Indoor Championships Prague, Czech Republic5th60 m hurdles7.63
World Championships Beijing, China8th, SF 3110 m hurdles13.53
2016 World Indoor Championships Portland, United States10th60 m hurdles7.65
Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro, Brazil11th110 m hurdles13.46

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References

  1. "WSEH AC Archived 30 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine "
  2. 1 2 "Clarke, Sir (Charles) Lawrence (Somerset), (born 12 March 1990), investment banker, Citigroup, since 2016". Who's Who. 1 December 2020. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u294323. ISBN   978-0-19-954088-4 . Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  3. Simon Hart (28 September 2010). "Commonwealth Games 2010: Charles Lawrence Somerset Clarke eyes next hurdle". Telegraph.co.uk.
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  5. 1 2 "About".
  6. "- Person Page 22615". thepeerage.com.
  7. "200 invalid-request". www.summerfields.com. Archived from the original on 14 September 2012.
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  9. https://www.linkedin.com/pub/lawrence-clarke/27/310/419 [ self-published source ]
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  14. "Easy as 1-2-3: England's record high in hurdles". Independent.co.uk . 9 October 2010.
  15. Jessica Creighton. "BBC Sport - Mo Farah wins national 5,000 m title but set to focus on 10,000 m". BBC Sport.
  16. "AVIVA 2012 TRIALS: Pozzi and Clarke respect no reputations to book Olympic slots | More than the games". Archived from the original on 27 June 2012. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
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Baronetage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Baronet
(of Dunham Lodge, Norfolk)
2019–present
Incumbent