Chalmers in dreamland with more still to come

Chalmers ran a superb 50.11sec. in his IAAF World U20 Championships semi-final to eclipse Richard Davenport’s mark of 50.20 and slice nearly half-a-second off his own personal best.

Just minutes earlier, the schedule was delayed due to heavy rainfall and several apprehensive big names blundered in the first two semis.

But lining up beside favourite Sokwakhana Zazini in the third and final semi, Chalmers remained remarkably composed as he eyed one of two automatic qualifying spots.

Zazini got away quickly and the Guernseyman instead settled on Jamaica’s Leonardo Ledgister before blasting along the home straight to pip his Jamaican rival by two-hundredths on the line.

This lofty competition was just what Chalmers needed to clock the second quickest qualifier of the day, adding another national record to his U18-level accolade from winning last year’s Youth Commonwealths.

But Friday’s was even more remarkable, being run in sub-par conditions by an athlete who still has a year left in the under-20 age group.

‘It’s an absolute dream come true, I broke the U18 national record and now this, and I’m a year young so I know that I can go faster’ he said.

‘Coming round the top bend I was like “I need to get back into this”, I saw the Jamaican and was like “stay on him, stay on him” and pushed with all my heart and I just got him on the line which was absolutely great.’

That set up Chalmers for the biggest race of his budding career on Saturday.

Weary from the preliminaries, he worked hard to get into medal contention on the home straight but could not draw on his signature quick finish, taking sixth in 50.27 as champion Zazini and three others broke 50sec.

Although he fell just short, Chalmers ended his season in dream fashion and will soon join forces with Bath University’s James Hillier for the next phase of his promising career.

‘The World Champs for me has just been an absolutely incredible experience and an honour really to represent my country again,’ he said.

‘Coming into this season, I wanted to get to the World Champs and get to the final and run sub-51 and I’ve done all that this year, I’ve surpassed what I’d ever thought I could do this season and it’s just been down to hard work, grafting and support from everyone.

‘Knowing I’m sixth in the world a year young is something that very few people can say and I think, going to the next season, I’ve got a lot of experience and knowledge I can take into training – the aims are definitely to run sub-50, get close to 49, and to win the European [Junior] Championships.’

• Chalmers backed all this up by running leg three for a bronze-medaling GB 4x400m relay team, who finished just over a second behind the winning Italian quartet.