On track: the Stadio Olimpico is an awesome venue for this week’s European Championships. Pic: Mattia Ozbot/Getty Images for European Athletics
Croydon Harrier Romell Glave won 100 metres bronze in the Stadio Oilmpico in Rome last night, on the second day of the 2024 European Championships.
It is the 24-year-old’s first international championship medal, and underlines his claim for a place in Great Britain’s Olympic team next month. “These championships are like a bus stop for where I want to go later in the season,” Glave has said.
Glave’s bronze is the first European Championships medal won by a Croydon Harrier since 400-metre runner Martyn Rooney stepped up to the top of the podium in 2016, but there could be more hardware placed around Glave’s neck later this week if he is included in the quartet for the men’s sprint relay.
Glave might have counted himself unlucky last night not to have taken silver behind Olympic 100m champion and home favourite Marcell Jacobs, of Italy. A second Italian, Chituru Ali, was placed second after being allowed to race despite a blatant false start earlier.
Glave, the only Briton to progress into the final after winning his semi-final earlier in the evening, had the better start of the eight finalists and led the race going into the final 40 metres. But then Jacobs turned on the afterburners, to the delight of the cheering Romans in the modern-day amphitheatre.
Jacobs clocked 10.02 to Ali’s 10.05, with Glave running 10.06.
Jamaican-born Glave lived in South Norwood after arriving in Britain in 2015. The following year, he announced his immense sprinting talent to the world when he won under-17 200m gold at the English Schools, and in 2017 was officially the world’s fastest 17-year-old, running 10.21sec.
Photo-finish: Italy’s Marcell Jacobs (No5 on his shorts) powered through the second-half of the men’s 100 metres final to take gold in Rome last night, where Romell Glave (right) placed third Pic: Mattia Ozbot/Getty Images for European Athletics
Since then, his transition to senior sprinting has been plagued by a series of injuries, including a fractured back suffered during the pandemic.
Last night, his bronze medal around his neck, Glave said: “I am grateful to be here and get the opportunity to showcase my abilities against the best in the world. That is one of my goals this year, competing against the best so I can go on to better things.”
Thinking back to his injuries, Glave has said in an interview earlier this month, “It was a very difficult time.”
Only now is he beginning to bring pieces together alongside the best in the world. “A lot of athletes coming from a successful junior level don’t make it to the senior level. You have to start again from scratch and reset your mindset – you are not the top athlete any more, you are just one of those guys trying to build up the process.”
Glave is coached by Michael Afilaka, who also helped Adam Gemili and Jeanette Kwakye to national and international successes.
“He really does stand by me,” Glave said in an interview with Athletics Monthly. “He could have lost the belief in me when I was going through injuries. He has been there through thick and thin.”
Finallist: Lawrence Okoye was another Croydon Harrier in action at the Europeans
After being part of Britain’s men’s squad at the World Relays in the Bahamas last month, where Olympic qualification for Paris was confirmed, Glave seems to be on the brink of a real breakthrough. “I feel more confident and stronger, and I believe in myself and my speed.”
Not being included in the quartet for the 4x100m final in the Bahamas was just the added motivation that Glave needs. “It was disappointing but at the same time it gave me extra fire to show to the selectors that I am going to give you a reason to rethink your decision because I deserve to be there.”
Glave’s Olympic fate, for the individual sprints at least, will be determined at the British trials meeting later this month.
Glave was not the only Croydon Harrier in action in Rome this weekend, with national record-holder Lawrence Okoye placing eighth in the discus final on Friday night, in a discipline which is dominated by European athletes.
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