LISTEN: Chalmers ready to take risks

But first things first.

‘I definitely need a bit of time off at the moment. I’m in no rush to get to an athletics track – not in the next few weeks,’ he said yesterday back in his home island as guest on this week’s Guernsey Press Sport Podcast.

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The Team GB athlete admitted his body clock had not yet returned to BST but there was no disguising the smile of someone who is now a fully-fledged Olympian as he talked through his experiences of the last couple months as well as the lessons he has learnt.

‘You definitely see first-hand what you are up against, what it takes and the level of competition that there is out there. You can’t replicate that watching on the TV or just looking at people’s times on a website,’ Chalmers said.

‘When you are actually sprinting down the back straight a metre or closer to these other athletes who are the best in the world, you really get a sense of how high the standard really is and I obviously want to be a part of that – and it does make you want to go to as many of these championships as you possibly can in the short time-frame as an athlete at that level you can do.’

The effect of the pandemic means that the World Championships, the Commonwealth Games and the European Championships will be held in the space of a few weeks next summer and the Guernsey star will take time with his coach to plan exactly what his goals should be for 2022.

Looking a bit further ahead, he revealed his eyes are on Paris 2024, although to have an Olympic Games already on his CV means the pressure is now off to a certain extent.

‘I am so glad I got the opportunity, I’m back here and I’ve done that now so I feel like it’s a big weight off my shoulders,’ he said.

‘I can almost run freely now having gone to almost every major championships, I’ll just try and focus on what I want to focus on and almost take a few risks in terms of doing a bit more speed work and risking my body a little bit more because I’ve achieved one of my biggest goals.’