The 400m hurdles ace trumped an international field on Sunday in lowering his Guernsey record to 48.30sec. from lane two, beating a 21-year-old best for the World Athletics Continental Tour Silver event and also making a real statement at an exciting time for his discipline.
The 25-year-old has already responded, ‘It’s going’, to a social media post reiterating the prospect of Kriss Akabusi losing his British record – which is just 0.48sec. quicker.
Briefly in recent days his stranglehold on British 400m hurdling seemed to have loosened as Stoke’s Seamus Derbyshire overtook him as the nation’s fifth-fastest runner ever for the discipline, dropping a 48.47 in the Czech Republic last Monday.
Rugby and Northampton’s Josh Faulds had also run marginally inside the Guernsey great’s season’s best of 48.61 from Dresden on 1 June.
Watch Ala in action in Germany
However, Chalmers had clearly suffered from hitting hurdle eight in his previous German outing, and this much cleaner run in Rehlingen showed him significantly nearer his vast potential.
He made comparatively light work of home favourite Emil Agyekum (48.61) – who was his foil in Dresden – and the Czech Republic’s Vit Muller (49.04) before performing his characteristic celebrations over the line.
Having regained control of Britain’s 400m hurdles rankings, he now has a long summer season ahead, including taking aim at a sixth straight title in the UK Athletics Championships.
These take place significantly later than usual, between Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 August, and even a top-two finish would guarantee his place at the World Championships in Tokyo the following month.
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