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Lawrence Clarke (hurdler)

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Sir Lawrence Clarke
Bt OLY
Clarke at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Personal information
Full nameCharles Lawrence Somerset Clarke
NationalityBritish/American
Born (1990-03-12) 12 March 1990 (age 34)
Westminster, London, England
Height1.87 m (6 ft 1+1⁄2 in)
Weight77 kg (170 lb; 12.1 st)
Sport
SportMen's athletics
Event110 m hurdles
ClubUS Créteil-Lusitanos (France), Windsor, Slough, Eton and Hounslow Athletic Club[1] (England).
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)110 m hurdles (U20): 13.37
60 m Hurdles: 7.59
110 m hurdles: 13.31/13.14w
Medal record
Representing  Great Britain
European Athletics Junior Championships
Gold medal – first place 2009 Novi Sad 110 m hurdles
European Athletics U23 Championships
Bronze medal – third place 2011 Ostrava 110 m hurdles
Representing  England
Commonwealth Games
Bronze medal – third place 2010 Delhi 110 m hurdles

Sir Charles Lawrence Somerset Clarke, 7th Baronet (born 12 March 1990[2]), is a former professional 110 m hurdler who finished fourth in the London Olympic Games 110 m hurdles final. He is the son of Sir Tobias "Toby" Clarke, 6th Baronet, and succeeded to the baronetcy on his father's death in 2019.[3] He served as Captain of the Great Britain Athletics Team at the 2015 European Athletics Indoor Championships and was coached in Bath by Malcolm Arnold.[4] He was coached in Paris by Giscard Samba Koundys for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. He currently works for Citigroup in London. He is also a member of the American Roosevelt family.

Education

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Born in Westminster, London,[5] Clarke was educated at two independent schools: at Summer Fields School in the city of Oxford and Eton College in Berkshire.[6] He went on to study Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Bristol, gaining a Second class honours, upper division (2:1).[7] He studied at the University of Bath for a master's degree in Management with a specialisation in UK Targeted Absolute Return Equity Fund Management.[8]

Family

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Clarke is the son of Sir Tobias "Toby" Clarke, 6th Baronet. His sister is Theo Clarke, MP. Clarke's maternal grandfather was the Conservative MP Somerset de Chair. He takes his name Lawrence from his American ancestor Abbott Lawrence.[5] He is also the distant relative of American Roosevelt family, which gave two Presidents of United States, Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt.[9]

Junior athletics career

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Clarke was in fourth place in the 110 m hurdles at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, India. He was also the British University (BUCS) champion in the 60 m hurdles (2009) with a time of 7.83 seconds and 110 m Champion (2010) in a time of 13.85 seconds.[10]

Clarke held the No. 1 spot on the British All Time list for the Under 20 men's 3"3 110 m hurdles until 23 May 2010. He established a new National Junior Record with a personal best of 13.37 seconds whilst also winning gold at European Junior Athletics Championships in July 2009, in Novi Sad, Serbia.[11][12]

Senior athletics career

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In June 2010, Clarke won the UK National Under-23 Title in a wind-assisted time (+2.5 m/s) of 13.60secs.[13] He successfully defended this title in June 2011 in his season debut that year.

On 8 October 2010, Clarke won the bronze medal at the XIX Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. He finished third behind two other English hurdlers: Andy Turner (2010 European Champion) and William Sharman. It is the first time in history that England have completed a 1-2-3 clean sweep in the 110 m hurdles.[14]

Clarke became national champion when he won the UK Senior 110 m hurdles title in 13.58s in July 2011,[15] earning him a place on the UK team at the World Championships in Daegu.

He competed at the 2011 World Athletics Championships in Daegu, South Korea where he went out in the first round with a time of 13.65s (-0.2 m/s). The winner of his heat was Jason Richardson who went on to win the Championships after Dayron Robles, the 2008 Olympic Champion and World Record holder, was disqualified after the final.

2012 Summer Olympics

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Main article: Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's 110 metres hurdles

On 24 June 2012, he achieved selection for Great Britain in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.[16] He ran a new personal best of 13.31 (-0.5 m/s) in his Olympic Semi final on 8 August. As a result, he qualified as the only European for the 110 m men's hurdles final as a fastest loser. Running from lane 2 in the final he finished an unexpected fourth place with a time of 13.39 seconds beating the 2009 World Champion, Ryan Brathwaite, into fifth.[17]

Post London

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He broke his wrist in the winter of 2012 followed by a series of hamstring tears that saw him miss high level competition in 2013.[18] He returned to International competition in 2014 finishing eighth at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. Two weeks later he competed at the European Athletics Championships in Zurich only to tear his hamstring five minutes before the call room for the European Final.[19]

In March 2015 he was appointed Team Captain of Great Britain at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague.[20] He finished fifth in the 60 m hurdles. That summer he competed at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in the Bird's Nest Stadium in Beijing exiting in the semi-finals.

After the World Championships he made the decision to leave Malcolm Arnold (athletics coach) OBE and Bath and moved to Paris to train with Giscard Samba Koundys and Dimitri Bascou.

He competed at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Portland, Oregon, U.S. in March 2016 just missing out on the men's 60 m hurdles final. His training partner Dimitri Bascou went on to win the bronze medal.

In July 2016 he was selected to represent Great Britain at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He finished 11th, missing out on the final by 0.05 of a second.

In 2016 he joined Citigroup,[2][21] before becoming managing director at Prelude Capital in 2022.

Personal bests

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Event Best Location Date
60 metres hurdles 7.59s Mondeville, France 7 February 2015
110 metres hurdles 13.31s London, England 8 August 2012
110 metres hurdles (wind assisted) 13.14s (+4.7 m/s) Madrid, Spain 7 July 2012

International competitions

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Year Competition Venue Position Event Notes
2008 Commonwealth Youth Games Pune, India 4th 110 m hurdles (99 cm) 14.23
2009 European Junior Championships Novi Sad, Serbia 1st 110 m hurdles (99 cm) 13.37
2010 Commonwealth Games Delhi, India 3rd 110 m hurdles 13.70
2011 European Indoor Championships Paris, France 4th, SF 2 60 m hurdles 7.74
European U23 Championships Ostrava, Czech Republic 3rd 110 m hurdles 13.62
World Championships Daegu, South Korea 5th, Heat 2 110 m hurdles 13.65
2012 Olympic Games London, United Kingdom 4th 110 m hurdles 13.31
2014 Commonwealth Games Glasgow, United Kingdom 8th 110 m hurdles 13.84
European Championships Zurich, Switzerland DNS, Final 110 m hurdles -
2015 European Indoor Championships Prague, Czech Republic 5th 60 m hurdles 7.63
World Championships Beijing, China 8th, SF 3 110 m hurdles 13.53
2016 World Indoor Championships Portland, United States 10th 60 m hurdles 7.65
Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 11th 110 m hurdles 13.46

References

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  1. ^ "WSEH AC Archived 30 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine"
  2. ^ a b "Clarke, Sir (Charles) Lawrence (Somerset), (born 12 March 1990), investment banker, Citigroup, since 2016". Who's Who. 1 December 2020. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u294323. ISBN 978-0-19-954088-4. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
  3. ^ Simon Hart (28 September 2010). "Commonwealth Games 2010: Charles Lawrence Somerset Clarke eyes next hurdle". Telegraph.co.uk.
  4. ^ http://www.athletics-weekly.com/article.php?id=951 [permanent dead link‍]
  5. ^ a b "About".
  6. ^ "200 invalid-request". www.summerfields.com. Archived from the original on 14 September 2012.
  7. ^ "Bristol University - News - 2011: Lawrence Clarke". bris.ac.uk.
  8. ^ https://www.linkedin.com/pub/lawrence-clarke/27/310/419 [self-published source]
  9. ^ "Team GB's Lawrence Clarke says he wishes he hadn't gone to Eton". The Independent. 7 August 2012. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  10. ^ "Unknown Page". topsinathletics.com.
  11. ^ "European Athletics Athlete Database".
  12. ^ UKA Five Medals At Euro Juniors Archived 28 July 2011 at archive.today
  13. ^ "Clarke eyes European trials after storming hurdles win in Bedford - More than the games". Archived from the original on 22 June 2010.
  14. ^ "Easy as 1-2-3: England's record high in hurdles". Independent.co.uk. 9 October 2010.
  15. ^ Jessica Creighton. "BBC Sport - Mo Farah wins national 5,000 m title but set to focus on 10,000 m". BBC Sport.
  16. ^ "AVIVA 2012 TRIALS: Pozzi and Clarke respect no reputations to book Olympic slots | More than the games". Archived from the original on 27 June 2012. Retrieved 25 June 2012.
  17. ^ "110 m hurdles men results - Athletics - London 2012 Olympics". olympics.com.
  18. ^ "BBC Sport". BBC Sport.
  19. ^ "William Sharman has to settle for silver after hitting hurdles - Telegraph". 14 August 2014.
  20. ^ "Hatton and Clarke progress at Prague European Indoor Championships - Athletics Weekly".
  21. ^ "Meet the team". Life After Sport. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
Baronetage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Baronet
of Dunham Lodge
2019–present 		Incumbent
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