Charlie Dobson steps up a gear

British 400m champion on switching focus and elevating his personal ranges of ambition

By early September, Charlie Dobson had run 10 particular person races throughout the 12 months, everywhere in the similar distance of 400m. It had been a season like no different – not simply because it yielded an Olympic relay bronze, European particular person silver and first British title, however that each one of these accolades had come over the quarter-mile.

For many of Dobson’s profession he had thought of himself to be primarily a 200m runner. So, on the finish of his first 12 months focusing totally on double that distance, he thought he would possibly take a look at himself again over the shorter dash to see if a collection of 400m private bests would translate when dropping down.

Dobson, 25, pencilled himself in for a low-key, season-ending 200m race however, earlier than committing, his supervisor messaged the organisers of the Diamond League ultimate in Brussels to double-check that he was not wanted.

Dobson had competed in three Diamond League races throughout the summer time, incomes adequate factors to put him tenth within the standings. With the Belgian hosts permitted so as to add a house nation athlete, it meant he required three athletes to drop out if he was to be given a spot within the eight-lane ultimate. Unlikely, however price posing the query.

The reply that got here again was unexpectedly constructive, however with plans altered in favour of a visit to Belgium there was one other hurdle to beat. When the beginning record was unveiled the day earlier than the race, Dobson had been allotted the unappetising, tight, inside lane one, whereas the considerably slower house addition of Jonathan Sacoor was in lane seven.

Negotiations came about, the 2 males have been belatedly switched a few hours earlier than the meet and Dobson was capable of produce essentially the most dramatic of late costs, surging house from seventh place when coming into the ending straight to say the unlikeliest of Diamond League titles. It was the “largest shock of the evening”, in response to surprised commentator Tim Hutchings.

“It was a shock to me, 100 per cent,” says Dobson. “You go into each race with full confidence in your self, however you must set your self practical targets.

“I’d initially thought I’d be comfortable if I got here within the high 5. Attending to 250m I’d run my very own race and other people weren’t as far forward of me as in earlier races. I got here off the bend and noticed they have been solely 5 or 10 metres forward so I assumed I’d be capable of chase them down. I gave it each single little bit of vitality I had and stunned myself. The lane change made the world of distinction.”

It was a efficiency that ought to have important repercussions for a profession that has flickered often with glimpses of Dobson’s expertise over a outstanding vary of distances. Solely final 12 months, he gained a World Indoor Tour 60m race in Birmingham, whereas he earned world under-20 silver over 200m and completed fourth over that very same distance on the 2022 European Championships.

Within the 5 400m races he had run previous to this 12 months, he had by no means gone slower than 56 seconds. It was this capability that led Iwan Thomas to inform AW two years in the past that his 400m British document of 44.36 was Dobson’s “if he desires it”.

At that time, Dobson nonetheless thought of himself a 200m runner, now admitting: “I by no means thought I’d 100 per cent transfer as much as the 400m.” A collection of accidents meant a change to that mindset, with 200m coaching “not working constantly sufficient for me to hold on having fun with the game”.

When his former coach Benke Blomkvist returned to his native Sweden, Dobson sought out the companies of Leon Baptiste final autumn, and determined to channel his total vitality into the 400m. “I simply wished to lastly take pleasure in a full season of athletics once more,” he explains.

The end result was a primary injury-free 12 months, which Dobson ascribes to a mixture of fixing coach, altering the depth of his coaching for the longer distance and ending college: “I can come again from coaching and simply chill and get better correctly relatively than having to take a seat at a desk.”

The European silver from June got here in a private greatest 44.38, which he then improved just a few weeks later when clocking 44.23 on the London Diamond League. That efficiency proved Thomas appropriate, however didn’t legislate for the excellent instances produced by Matt Hudson-Smith, who went under 44 seconds on three events in 2024, together with the run that took him to Olympic silver.

“It’s nice enjoyable, however on the similar time actually annoying,” says a smiling Dobson, when requested about having Hudson-Smith as a compatriot. “Personally, I’d have favored to have a crack on the British document. Now Matt has lowered it by nearly a second, which is unbelievable however irritating.

“Nevertheless it’s wonderful to have him as a British athlete and extremely inspiring. He’s an incredible man and is totally invested within the relay squad, which suggests lots to all of the boys.”

The lads’s 4x400m Olympic bronze was one in every of 5 relay medals gained by the British crew on the Paris Olympics, together with bronzes within the ladies’s and blended 4x400m. That, says Dobson, is in no small half right down to Hudson-Smith.

“We’ve bought such a robust squad now,” he says. “We’ve medalled at each main championship since Europeans in 2022, and lengthy might it proceed.

“British males’s 400m working did undergo a little bit of a lull and lots of people had written it off, however Matt having his unbelievable comeback and successful a medal in Eugene [2022 World Championships] spearheaded the resurgence of British 400m working. It definitely impressed me to choose up the 400m and dedicate extra time to the relay, and I’m certain it did with others.

“We’re beginning to develop some actually good depth, so we’ve the power to swap out individuals as and after we want, and nonetheless be extremely robust. That was confirmed on the Olympics.”

» That is an abridged model of a function that seems within the November subject of AW journal, Subscribe to AW journal right here, try our new podcast right here or signal as much as our digital archive of again points from 1945 to the current day right here

The put up Charlie Dobson steps up a gear appeared first on AW.