Max Burgin is going for gold in the world 800m final – Athletics Weekly

Asked if he can win in Tokyo, the British middle-distance man tells AW: “On my day I definitely can!”

The secret is out. Max Burgin is not in Tokyo to make up the numbers. The 23-year-old British 800m runner believes he can win gold in Saturday’s World Championships final.

The spotlight might be firmly on Keely Hodgkinson as the Olympic champion tries to win her first world 800m title. But Burgin could make it a golden double for Britain with victory in the men’s event.

Ben Pattison knows a thing or two about winning medals over two laps. He won bronze in Budapest two years ago but finished fifth in his semi-final on Thursday (Sept 18). He has shared a room with Burgin at events since they were teenagers and said: “I think Max can go and win it.

“The way he’s running, he’s looking so strong and he’s in phenomenal shape. I’m going to do my best these next two days to try and chill him out a bit. He gets quite nervous, so I’ll do my best.”

Speaking to AW moments later, after cruising through his semi-final in 1:43.37 behind Cian McPhillips’ surprise Irish record of 1:43.18, Burgin said: “I’m still hoping for a medal.”

But when told about Pattison’s belief he could strike gold, Burgin said: “I think on my day I definitely can.”

He added: “It’s up to me now to recover as best I can, come into that final on Saturday in the best possible frame of mind and state of body and just go for it.”

It is perhaps a good omen that Burgin wasn’t even sick after his semi-final. He usually spends several minutes throwing up but he breezed through his interviews without needing a bucket for once. Maybe it was the slightly damp and cooler weather, he reckons.

He is also one of the most softly spoken and modest members of the GB team, so to admit that he’s going for gold means he is very much nailing his colours to the mast.

His rivals on Sunday should be worried. They include: McPhillips, Mohamed Attaoui of Spain, Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya, Navasky Anderson of Jamaica, Tshepiso Masalela of Botswana, world champion Marco Arop of Canada and Djamel Sedjati of Algeria.

Last year Burgin still looked like a boy against men as he finished last in the Olympic final in Paris but this isn’t the case anymore. “Without a doubt, I’m in a better shape than I was then – a better place – so hoping for a better result,” he says.

“I’m just hoping to be in a much more competitive this time. I was trailing out the back last time (in Paris) but I think the difference now is I know what that 1:42 low pace feels like. Even if he gets pushed into 1:41 I should be comfortable sticking with it.”

In a championships full of surprises – Jimmy Gressier in the 10,000m, Isaac Nader in the 1500m and Geordie Beamish in the steeplechase – Burgin could be the next underdog winner. This is not a soft final either, with David Rudisha’s world record of 1:40.91 looking increasingly under threat in the past couple of years, whereas Seb Coe’s 1:41.73 British record is surely living on borrowed time.;

Burgin has come of age in time to fulfil a rich talent that he first revealed as a super-prodigious and record-breaking teenage runner. Among other things he broke David Sharpe’s long-standing British under-20 record with 1:45.36 in 2019 aged just 17 and then improved it to 1:44.75 the following year just after his 18th birthday. He then ran 1:44.14 at the start of 2021 but had to sit out the rest of the year with injury.

Recent seasons have been ruined by injury. Most recently he had problems in his Achilles and calf muscles, eventually diagnosed as a sural nerve issue which he has been able to manage this year. Most dramatically, he didn’t even make the start line at the World Championships in Eugene in 2022 and ended up in a mobility scooter after developing a blood clot in his leg.

“I was too bitter to watch the final,” he said at the time, although it no doubt fuelled his hunger to eventually make his mark.

This summer he has maintained his form and ran a big PB of 1:42.36 at the Diamond League in London. On his semi-final in Tokyo, he said: “I felt like I had loads left to be fair.”

His father-coach, Ian, plus his mum and girlfriend are in Tokyo to watch. “I’ll go and meet them after this race, have a little debrief before I head back to the hotel and get my flush, my warm down and my food, and yeah, get a few good nights sleep.”

On the eve of the race, though, Pattison’s influence could be crucial, though. “We’ve got a very friendly rivalry,” says Pattison. “We’ve been sharing rooms since Euro Youths back in 2018. We know each other really well. Once on race day, he normally wakes up pretty pale and non-verbal, so I’ll do my best to try and cheer him up!”

Pattison will return to his best. His build-up to this summer was ruined by six months out with a stress fracture, but he says: “Anyone can make excuses. I’m not that kind of guy. I’m sure everyone on that star line’s had issues this year. It was just bad racing today for me.”

It means Burgin is the lone Brit in Sunday’s final. When it comes to tactics, the common sense strategy will be for him to try to find a good spot in around third or fourth, sit in, maintain contact down the back straight on the final lap and then give it everything in the final 200m.

But wouldn’t it be a thrill if he employed the trademark front-running tactics that brought him so much success as a teenager. At the 1978 European Championships in Prague, Seb Coe’s father, Peter, famously told his athlete before the race: “Let’s see what the bastards are made of!”

Coe went on to run an unprecedented 49.3 first 400m before fading to third behind Olaf Beyer and Steve Ovett. It made, however, for an amazing race and Coe learnt more about himself that day than probably any other race during the early part of his career.

Let’s go, Max. It’s time for you to find out what they’re made of.

Hodgkinson and Hunter Bell progress in women’s 800m

There are plenty of weary athletes in Tokyo who are looking forward to an end-of-season break after a long summer. Keely Hodgkinson is not one of them. She only got racing relatively recently due to hamstring injuries in previous months – and it might be a blessing in disguise.

In her first round heat on Thursday she front-ran her way to a 1:59.79 victory and said: “It wasn’t anything like special or like, super dominant or anything. It was just get the job done. I don’t like the heats as they can feel worse when I’m running 1:59 than it does when I’m running 1:55 so I’m just happy I’m through.”

She added: “I’ve been so bored just waiting for it to come around so I was really excited to get out there and it’s our turn to have some fun and get on the stage, so, yeah, I’m excited.”

Looking back on her season and late start to racing, she said: “For a period of time, there was no plan. We were just going with what my body was reacting to. So luckily we made it here and we did enough, and I’m in this great place.”

Training partner Georgia Hunter Bell also won her heat in 1:58.82 after having chosen the 800m over the 1500m at these championships despite winning a medal at the latter in the Olympics last year.

After Diribe Welteji was suspended on the eve of the championships, Hunter Bell regretted not doing the double in Tokyo. But on Thursday she said: “At the same time, considering how the race went, with Faith (Kipyegon) winning and Jess (Hull) coming third, I have never beaten either of them in the 1500m so I actually feel like I made the right decision.”

It wasn’t Jemma Reekie’s night, though, as the Brit finished fifth in her race in 1:59.35. “It’s not what I wanted to be,” she said. “It’s a common theme this season. But I’ve just got to trust the process.

“I’ve been training a lot better than that, and I’ve definitely got stronger than that last 100m. But it’s just bringing that into racing.

“I definitely wanted to come out here and get back into those finals and it’s disappointing to not do that, but I’ve got to keep moving forward.”