British 400m champion on switching focus and raising his own levels of ambition
By early September, Charlie Dobson had run 10 individual races during the year, all over the same distance of 400m. It had been a season like no other – not just because it yielded an Olympic relay bronze, European individual silver and first British title, but that all of those accolades had come over the quarter-mile.
For most of Dobson’s career he had considered himself to be primarily a 200m runner. So, at the end of his first year focusing entirely on double that distance, he thought he might test himself back over the shorter sprint to see if a series of 400m personal bests would translate when dropping down.
Dobson, 25, pencilled himself in for a low-key, season-ending 200m race but, before committing, his manager messaged the organisers of the Diamond League final in Brussels to double-check that he was not needed.
Dobson had competed in three Diamond League races during the summer, earning sufficient points to place him 10th in the standings. With the Belgian hosts permitted to add a home nation athlete, it meant he required three athletes to drop out if he was to be given a spot in the eight-lane final. Unlikely, but worth posing the question.
Charlie Dobson (Getty)
The answer that came back was unexpectedly positive, but with plans altered in favour of a trip to Belgium there was another hurdle to overcome. When the start list was unveiled the day before the race, Dobson had been allocated the unappetising, tight, inside lane one, while the significantly slower home addition of Jonathan Sacoor was in lane seven.
Negotiations took place, the two men were belatedly switched a couple of hours before the meet and Dobson was able to produce the most dramatic of late charges, surging home from seventh place when entering the finishing straight to claim the unlikeliest of Diamond League titles. It was the “biggest shock of the night”, according to stunned commentator Tim Hutchings.
“It was a shock to me, 100 per cent,” says Dobson. “You go into every race with full confidence in yourself, but you have to set yourself realistic goals.
“I’d originally thought I’d be happy if I came in the top five. Getting to 250m I’d run my own race and people weren’t as far ahead of me as in previous races. I came off the bend and saw they were only five or 10 metres ahead so I thought I’d be able to chase them down. I gave it every single bit of energy I had…
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