We speak to the European silver medallist and aeronautical engineering graduate who is excelling at his 400m crash course
There’s definitely room for improvement,” reflects European Championships 400m silver medallist Charlie Dobson. It’s not a criticism of his recent 44.38 lifetime best performance – he says he ran ‘a very good race’ in Rome – but a subtle acknowledgement that there’s potential to go quicker.
“I think the biggest thing for me is still learning how to run the 400m. Looking back at the splits [11.13, 21.52, 32.38, 44.38 in Rome] there’s definitely still a lot of room for improvement in the way we approach the race and the way we set it up, but that’s something I’ll figure out.”
Like so many great stories, the intrigue is in the unknown.
Dobson, ranked fifth on the UK all-time list, is still relatively new to this game. A 200m silver medallist at the 2018 World U20 Championships, the Colchester athlete was persuaded to take on the 400m by his former coach (Benke Blomkvist) and fellow athletes and made his debut at the 2020 Loughborough August Invitational with 45.84.
His current CV is impressive: 4x400m gold and fourth in the 200m at the 2022 European Athletics Championships; 4x400m bronze at the 2023 World Athletics Championships; and 400m silver at the 2024 Europeans in only his eighth race over the distance. He missed the delayed Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021 due to a stress fracture in his shin, but making his Olympic debut in Paris is definitely a silver lining.
Charlie Dobson (Getty)
Now in his first year as a full-time athlete – he graduated with a first-class degree in aeronautical engineering last summer – and just nine months after linking up with coach Leon Baptiste, Dobson’s potential has still not been fully realised.
“In terms of training, this is the first year I’ve focused more on the 400m than the 200m,” says the 24-year-old. “We’re certainly further ahead than I thought I’d be at the start of the season, but there are obviously things to work on in the race to improve further, like pushing out harder.
“We train more like a 200m/400m sprinter. That’s the approach Leon wanted to take and it’s clearly paid off so far, being able to retain my speed but also working on the strength endurance part of it. I never really did too much of that beforehand so that’s had a massive impact.
“Having the time to rest and recover and not having exams to do, especially at this time of…
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