Ala delighted to be on elite GB list
ALASTAIR CHALMERS has finally become a lottery-funded Great Britain athlete.
Guernsey’s 400m hurdles ace has been named on UK Athletics’ Olympic World Class Programme for 2024-25, which supports and funds those deemed medal prospects at coming global championships.
His elder brother Cam had spent four years on the WCP under separate relay funding, but Ala has broken new ground in making an individual tier. There are just 42 individual and 23 relay athletes named this year.
‘Very happy to be on that – I definitely think it’s about time I’m on it,’ he said.
‘I probably should have been on it in 2022.
‘But yeah, happy that they’ve finally recognised that I deserve to have some attention in that area.’
UK Athletics, who describe their selections as those with ‘realistic potential and demonstrable performance capability and capacity to win medals at Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games or towards 2032’, split the WCP into three different levels for individual events.
The 24-year-old has been named at ‘confirmation’ level, which is a stepping stone to the ‘podium potential’ tier.
The top level, ‘podium’, is an elite cohort of just 21 athletes headlined by Paris 2024 golden girl Keely Hodgkinson.
Chalmers’ selection follows his own breakthrough this year, in which he lowered his personal best to 48.54sec. to qualify for the Olympics, where he made the semi-finals but was denied further progress after falling over a barrier.
He will be grateful for such support as he pushes towards the European Team and World Championships in 2025.
He will have to run faster than ever – 48.50 – simply to qualify for the Worlds, which will be held in Tokyo next September.
‘I’ve had an amazing season, and at the end of the day, you want to know that your governing body and your flag are supporting you and it’s lovely that they’ve seen that now.
‘I definitely was expecting to be on some sort of funding, whether that was confirmation or podium potential, and yeah it’s great that it’s been announced and I’m heading forward with them.
‘It’s a great thing. It helps all round the block, especially with finances, therapy and warm-weather training trips.’
