The 2009 European Athletics Junior Championships 110m hurdles gold medallist Lawrence Clarke is the latest in the long line of British hurdling aristocracy but, unbeknown to many, he also is an aristocrat off the track as well.
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| British hurdler Lawrence Clarke. |
Charles Lawrence Somerset Clarke, to give him his full name which he rarely uses, is the heir to a baronetcy, a British hereditary title.
'I may have had presidents and prime ministers in the family back in the mists of time but that has only inspired me to be successful myself. I have always been in reverence of my ancestors and I feel I must do justice to the heritage they have left me,” commented Clarke, in a recent interview with www.skysports.com.
'I am proud of my heritage but it is often the subject of scrutiny. I am glad that I am from a background that has been, most of the time, a hard working one.
'I obviously have a bizarrely alien background to the traditional athletic character but I don't believe that has any bearing on my career or talent as a runner,' he added.
The 20-year-old student at Bristol University has suffered the comparisons with Lord Burghley, who was the heir to the Marquess of Exeter when he won the 400m hurdles title at the 1928 Olympic Games and who was portrayed, albeit in a highly distorted fashion, in the Oscar-winning film Chariots of Fire.
Burghley went on to become president of the IAAF and an International Olympic Committee member.
However, Clarke has set his sights first on winning at the 2011 European Athletics U23 Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic, before any thoughts of Olympic glory can be entertained.
Since 2008, he has been training with the hurdles guru Malcolm Arnold, mentor in the past to European 110m record holder Colin Jackson, among many others.
This season Clarke has improved to 13.69 and also helped England complete an unprecedented 1-2-3 at the Commonwealth Games in India back in October, taking a bronze medal behind 2010 European Athletics Championships gold medallist Andy Turner and William Sharman.
'The season didn't really go to plan as I got injured at the end of July but it meant I could solely focus on the races in Delhi. I didn't run the times I wanted but I got the medal I wanted so I am pleased with that.'
Clarke has Sharman for company in Arnold’s group and also the 2010 European Athletics Championships 400m hurdles gold and silver medallists Dai Greene and Rhys Williams.
'He (Arnold) is the brains behind the group's success but expects the athletes to work out solutions to their own technical problems through asking searching questions about what they are doing.'
'Ideally, I want a major world medal and to break the 13-second barrier in my career, as that is where all my heroes have been,' added Clarke.
'Although that is ambitious and will be more than difficult, I couldn't be in better hands with Malcolm, and who knows in six or seven years time I will hopefully be a much faster and stronger athlete with the potential to do that.'
In Ostrava, Clarke could face some tough opponents in the shape of Russia’s Sergey Shubenkov and Czech Republic’s Martin Mazác, who are also still in the under 23 category this year and were just slightly faster than Clarke in 2010.
However, Clarke has shown, not least in the Serbian city of Novi Sad two years ago when he won his European junior title and beat Shubenkov to the line, that he has fighting spirit as well as some genes of famous ancestors running through his veins.