Guernsey Press

Confident Chalmers strides into the semis

ALASTAIR CHALMERS dominated his heat of the IAAF World U20 Championships yesterday and showed that more is to come.

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Alastair Chalmers, left, with his parents and his coach Dale Garland at the IAAF World U20 Championships in Tampere, Finland. (Picture via @CamChalmers400)

The GB-kitted Guernseyman will appear in today’s 400m hurdles semi-finals after winning the second of six heats in a brisk 51.16sec. – on par with his breakthrough qualifying performance at April’s Commonwealth Games, but outside his personal best of 50.52.

Mexican sub-50 runner Sergio Esquivel started as heat favourite and was quick out of the blocks in lane six before he crashed over the second hurdle, ending his race prematurely as a result.

With Esquivel out of the equation, Chalmers’ prospects looked good but he had to remain wary of Switzerland’s Julien Bonvin, who gave him an excellent challenge right up until the final straight.

It was there that the young Sarnian drew on his strong finish and strode in assuredly to win the heat by a fair margin over Italy’s Alessandro Sibilio and a tiring Bonvin.

‘Coming into the heat, I knew it was going to be a strong heat, [with] the Mexican running 49.9,’ Chalmers said afterwards.

‘I was going down the back straight, I saw the Swiss next to me and I thought “don’t panic, do your race strategy” and when I came round the top bend, I really winded up and came home quite comfortably, to be honest.’

Fellow GB athlete Alex Knibbs also qualified, running 51.29 in heat five to finish just behind South Africa’s Sokwakhana Zazini, a previous U18 champion whose daunting PB of 49.32 is the fastest in the field.

But among this flurry of quick heat times, Chalmers was the fourth fastest qualifier and is confident ahead of this evening’s semis.

He will be giving it maximum effort as he hopes to earn the distinction of being a world championships finalist and potentially even clinch a sub-50.20 British age-group record.

‘Anything can happen on the day, believe me – I know I’m in great shape and I’ll give it my all because I want into that world final,’ added Chalmers, who will line up in the third of three semi-finals at 5.46pm BST, with the first two in each semi qualifying by right for the final.