However, as the 25-year-old heads to the Novuna UK Championships in Birmingham chasing an incredible sixth successive title in the discipline, the nation’s up-and-coming hurdles elite will present competitive depth far beyond what he has experienced so far.
The Guernseyman went faster than ever with June’s 48.30sec. clocking but the fireworks have been popping behind him too this season, with Seamus Derbyshire (48.42), Tyri Donovan (48.46), Josh Faulds (48.59) and Jake Minshull (48.88) all making significant breakthroughs to join him in the sub-49sec. club.
‘He’s so confident, I think he’s going to go there and execute his own race and he’ll fully expect that to be enough,’ Guernsey Athletics development officer Tom Druce said.
‘As we’re seeing, the event suddenly in Britain has taken off a bit and there’s guys running times now who, in previous eras, would have been far and away the best athlete there, and now they’re ranked like third or fourth this season.
‘There’s a lot of competition and so he’ll have to run close to his best to see them all off.
‘But, as we know, he rises to that occasion and he loves retaining that title year after year after year, so hopefully No 6 will be in the offing come Sunday afternoon.’
Achieving that sixth British 400m hurdles title would elevate him decisively above former world champion Dai Greene, who achieved five between 2009 and 2018. The only other athletes to have passed this national title tally did so under the banner of the defunct AAA Championships.
Chalmers begins his title defence in tomorrow’s heats at noon, ahead of the final at 2.05pm the following afternoon.
Fellow Commonwealth Games sprinter Abi Galpin is entered to compete over the women’s 100m and will line up if her legs permit.
The multiple Guernsey record-holder was limited by an adductor injury at the Orkney 2025 Island Games but still came away with a 4x400m silver, plus individual and relay bronzes over 100m.
The whole 100m competition takes place on Saturday. The heats start at 12.36pm, feeding into that afternoon’s semis at 4.23pm and final at 7.12pm.
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