Lawrence Clarke (athlete)

Charles Lawrence Somerset Clarke
Personal information
Nationality English/American
Born (1990-03-12) 12 March 1990
Westminster, London, England
Residence Paris, France
Height 1.87 m (6 ft 1 1⁄2 in)
Weight 77 kg (170 lb; 12.1 st)
Sport
Sport Running / Hurdling
Event(s) 110m Hurdles
Club US Créteil-Lusitanos (France), Windsor, Slough, Eton and Hounslow Athletic Club[1] (England).
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s) 110m Hurdles (U20): 13.37
60m Hurdles: 7.59
110m Hurdles: 13.31/13.14w
Medal record
Men's athletics
Representing  Great Britain
European Athletics Junior Championships
2009 Novi Sad 110m hurdles
European Athletics U23 Championships
2011 Ostrava 110m hurdles
Representing  England
Commonwealth Games
2010 Delhi 110m hurdles

Charles Lawrence Somerset Clarke (born 12 March 1990 in Westminster, London[2][3]), commonly known as Lawrence Clarke, is a professional 110m hurdler who notably finished fourth in the London Olympic Games 110m Hurdles Final. He is the son of Sir Toby Clarke, 6th Baronet and is the heir apparent to the baronetcy.[4] 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, the former coach of Colin Jackson and John Akii-Bua.[5] He is currently coached in Paris by Giscard Samba Koundy.

Education

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

Family

Clarke is the son of Sir Tobias Clarke, 6th Baronet. Clarke's maternal grandfather was the Conservative MP Somerset de Chair, son of Admiral Sir Dudley Rawson Stratford de Chair KCB KCMG KBE MVO. He takes his name Lawrence from his American ancestor Abbott Lawrence.[9] His uncle is Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg.[10] He is a descendent of the Roosevelt Family.

In September 2015 he was engaged to be married to Carina Stolt-Nielsen Wikborg, granddaughter of Jacob Stolt-Nielsen.[11]

Junior athletics career

Clarke was in fourth place in the 110m hurdles at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, India. He was also the British University (BUCS) champion in the 60m hurdles (2009) with a time of 7.83 seconds and 110m Champion (2010) in a time of 13.85 seconds.[12]

Clarke held the No. 1 spot on the British All Time list for the Under 20 men's 3"3 110m 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. .[13][14]

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.[15] 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 110m hurdles.[16]

Clarke became national champion when he won the UK Senior 110m hurdles title in 13.58s in July 2011,[17] 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 Olympic Games

On 24 June 2012, he achieved selection for Great Britain in the XXX Olympiad in London 2012.[18] 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 110m Men's Hurdles Final as a fastest loser. Running from lane 2 in the final he finished an unexpected 4th place with a time of 13.39 seconds beating the 2009 World Champion, Ryan Brathwaite, into 5th.[19]

Personal bests

Event Best Location Date
60 metres hurdles 7.59s Mondeville, France 7 February 2015
110 metres hurdles 13.31s London, England 8 August 2012
110 metres hurdles (wind assisted) 13.14s (+4.7 m/s) Madrid, Spain 7 July 2012
Baronetage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Sir Toby Clarke, 6th Baronet		 in line of succession to Baronetcy
(of Dunham Lodge, Norfolk. cr.1831) 		heir apparent

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, May 06, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.