Christopher Clarke MBE (born 25 January 1990) is an English elite athlete sprinter who has often represented Great Britain and Northern Ireland. At club level he represents Marshall Milton Keynes AC and is also higher claim to Newham and Essex Beagles A.C.

Career

At the 2006 Beijing World Junior Athletics Championships Clarke won a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...

in the

4 × 400 metres relay The 4 × 400 metres relay or long relay is an athletics track and field, track event in which teams consist of four runners who each complete 400 metres or one lap, totaling 1600 meters. It is traditionally the final event of ...

. In 2007 he finished first in the

400 metres The 400 metres, or 400-meter dash, is a sprint event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1964 for women. On a standard outdoor running track, it is ...

final of the World Youth Championships to win the gold medal. On 24 July 2009 he won two gold medals (400 m and 4 × 400 m) at the European Junior Championships in a new personal best of 45.59 seconds. 2009 also saw Chris selected for his first Senior Great Britain national team for the World athletics championships in Berlin. 2010 saw him compete as part of the 4 × 400 m relay team who later went on to claim a bronze medal at the world indoor athletics championships in Doha. In 2011, Chris returned from injury to finish second at the British Championships and qualify for the World Athletics Championships. The GB relay team qualified for the final with 3:00.38 (Chris running 44.99 split). The team later went on to place seventh in the final with a time of 3:01.16. 2012 saw Chris finish 3rd in the 200m at the British Athletics Championships. He went on to represent Great Britain at the European championships later that year finishing 6th in the final. He missed qualification for the 2012 summer Olympics. 2013 saw Chris run two personal best in the 200m to finish second in the national senior ranking with 20.22 (-1.7). In 2014, Chris reached the semi-final of the men's 200m at the commonwealth Games held in Glasgow. February 2016, Clarke began competing as a guide runner with

Paralympic The Paralympic Games or Paralympics is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disabilities. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Kore ...

silver medalist Libby Clegg. They won the gold medal in the 100 m – T11 & 200 m - T11 events at the Rio Paralympics. Clarke was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to sport. In 2021, Clarke won a silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics in the Mixed 4 x 100m relay, again as a guide runner for Clegg.

References

External links

UKA Chris Clarke

On the blocks

Chris Clarke athlete profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Christopher 1990 births Living people Athletes from London English male sprinters British male sprinters Black British sportsmen 21st-century Black British people Commonwealth Games athletes for England Athletes (track and field) at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Paralympics Members of the Order of the British Empire Paralympic medalists in athletics (track and field) Paralympic gold medalists for Great Britain Paralympic silver medalists for Great Britain Paralympic athletes for Great Britain 21st-century English sportsmen