The last time I spoke to Callum Elson, he sat in front of a webcam in Springfield, Massachusetts, the blue and yellow of a Leeds United flag a rare interruption from a beige vision of the usual furnishings of a college dorm. In early 2022, then a newly-minted sub-four miler,…
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A Few More Laps with David Chalfen
A brown mop flies past the head of a 14-year-old making his first tracks in the dark of a Barnet night. A renowned 10,000m world-record-holder, weaving past a rabble of juniors still well within the first 25 laps of their own pursuit. Dave Bedford on the outside and a younger,…
Athlete Interviews
A voice found – Mateiko, Chepkwony and the Antrim Coast Half
I’m sat on a bench, tall pines providing some welcome respite from the midday sun and the man to my left is extolling the virtues of Northern Ireland. Larne has a fan in the Kenyan rift valley. In 2023, Daniel Mateiko got on three flights and found himself at George…
Athlete Interviews
The one-word diary of Eliud Kipchoge
Sponsors may vary. A Coros watch on his wrist, a glucose monitor glued to his arm but for Eliud Kipchoge simple pen and paper will always prevail. On 3 March 2024, the double Olympic champion passed the red bricks of one of the world’s most iconic train stations. Four minutes…
Athlete Interviews
Daniel Mateiko reminds Kenya, Kaptagat is king
For 20 years, the Global Sports Communication Camp in Kaptagat has gripped tightly the mantle of the world’s best distance group. From Eliud Kipchoge since his first world title in 2003, Olympic champion Brimin Kipruto and his assault on the 3000m Steeplechase world record, to Olympic and world champions Stephen…
Athlete Interviews
“Real history” beckons for Tokyo-bound Kipchoge
26.2 miles of answers. A long-awaited showdown between the marathon’s greatest exponent and an athlete already with a vice-like grip on his slipping crown. I spoke to Eliud Kipchoge in January, his modest 3 by 2m Kaptagat room the background, a prison for the ramping tension that followed his Paris…
Athlete Interviews
Phil Sesemann – on the edge of the possible
Phil Sesemann is familiar to the roads, less so to the feeling. The sun shining down, he is making his way to Cutty Sark. The six mile drag from London Bridge, strong legs have long since departed. “Emile (Cairess) called it a zero out of ten performance, which I thought…
Athlete Interviews
Phily Bowden on embracing the emotion
Phily Bowden sat down and wrote out a poster. “I’m running for England” she eagerly scribed before wrapping it up to surprise her mum. Eight years after she first turned out for Bracknell AC, the 21-year-old was representing her nation at the Home Countries International. She would go on to…
Athlete Interviews
Alexandra Millard – when pressure becomes privilege
Alexandra Millard heads to an anonymous Belgian city, population just over 14,000. Green and brown flat fields would surround for mile on end, but everything is white. Snow falls steadily at the Cross Cup Hannut. Millard heads to the Wallonia as the European U23 bronze medallist over the discipline, a…
Athlete Interviews
Jacob Allen repays the role model favour
It’s not a coach or a clubmate holding Jacob Allen to account. It’s 25 12-year-old boys. The England international spends his days as a PE teacher in a North London comprehensive, his mornings and nights seeking the next step on athletics’ endless ladder. Discipline, persistence, humility. Three traits he repeats…
