Lifetime best: Croydon Harrier Romell Glave (right) raced to his first 10.00sec clocking in Tokyo yesterday
Croydon Harrier Romell Glave produced the run of his life yesterday to reach the semi-finals of the 100 metres at the athletics world championships in Tokyo.
Glave is drawn alongside one of the favourites, Canada’s Andre de Grasse, in the third semi-final, at 12.59pm UK time today (with events from Tokyo being shown live by BBC television, in between endless vacuous chat from pundits in a studio in London).
Glave’s British team mates Jeremiah Azu and Zharnel Hughes go in earlier semi-finals, which begin at 12.45pm UK time.
The final of the men’s 100metres, one of the highlights of most track meets, is due off at 2.20pm. Favourites for gold are Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson, the Olympic silver medallist from Paris last year, and Olympic and world champion Noah Lyles of the United States.
Yesterday, Glave clocked a personal best 10.00sec racing in a hot first heat in Japan’s National Stadium, but that was good enough only for fourth place behind South Africa’s Gift Leotlela, who won the race in 9.87, Kayinsola Ajayi of Nigeria (9.88) and Jamaican Oblique Seville (9.93).
That gave Glave an agonising half-hour wait for the completion of the heats for him to be confirmed among the qualifiers as one of the fastest losers.
Record-holder: Lawrence Okoye is another Croydon Harrier competing in Tokyo
Glave, 25, has been in his best racing form of his career so far this season, having beaten Andre de Grasse and 2021 Olympic gold medallist Marcell Jacobs on the track circuit at Turku in Finland earlier this summer.
Glave described that win as “redemption” for finishing third behind Jacobs at last year’s European championships.
Glave’s bronze in Rome last year was 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.
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.
Since then, his transition to senior sprinting has been plagued by a series of injuries, including a fractured back suffered during the pandemic.
“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 said last year.
Glave is not the only Croydon Harrier in action in Tokyo this week.
Discus national record-holder Lawrence Okoye is also in the Great Britain team, his qualifying round scheduled to take place next Saturday.
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