Guernsey’s 400m hurdles ace secured his first win at World Athletics Continental Tour Gold level – below only the Diamond Leagues among one-day meets – in posting 48.71sec., only 0.07sec. slower than his triumphant season opener from Italy the previous week.
Chalmers has been running faster than ever for May and could have gone significantly quicker yet had he not faced strong winds at the renamed Bydgoszcz Cup, commemorating a seven-time Olympic medallist.
The 26-year-old ran a well-judged race and used his strength over the final two barriers to scalp Jamaica’s Assinie Wilson, who had entered as the 10th-quickest runner in the world this season.
Turkey’s Ismail Nezir followed in 49.01, having also picked off the Jamaican, who settled for third another 0.08sec. back.
‘It’s very windy today, but wow, amazing track, amazing atmosphere, amazing crowd, love being here, love racing here,’ Chalmers said.
‘Lovely place and whenever you win a race, it’s special.’
He indicated that he would be giving his prize flowers to his heavily pregnant fiancee, Ellie Bell.
Chalmers had during the week highlighted on social media the apparent harshness of the newly released Beijing 2027 World Championships qualifying standards.
This includes World Athletics’ 400m hurdles ‘Worlds’ standard dropping to 48.00 for Beijing 2027.
However, with world rankings now the preferred pathway and designed to cover around 60% of selections, he is actually in a favourable position individually.
He stood 13th globally for his specialism when he lined up in Bydgoszcz and can expect a significant boost from this category A victory in Wednesday’s world rankings update.
You need to be logged in to comment.