Sir Lawrence Clarke, 7th Baronet

Sir Charles Lawrence Somerset Clarke, 7th Baronet OLY (born 12 March 1990), commonly known as Lawrence Clarke, is a former professional Double Olympic 110 m hurdler who notably finished fourth in the London Olympic Games 110 m hurdles final. He is the son of Sir Toby Clarke, 6th Baronet and succeeded to the baronetcy on his father's death in 2019.[2] 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.[3] He was coached in Paris by Giscard Samba Koundys for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. He currently works as an investment banker for Citigroup.

Lawrence Clarke

Clarke at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Personal information
Full name	Charles Lawrence Somerset Clarke
Nationality	British/American
Born	12 March 1990 Westminster, London, England
Height	1.87 m (6 ft 1 ^1⁄2 in)
Weight	77 kg (170 lb; 12.1 st)
Sport
Sport	Men's athletics
Event(s)	110 m Hurdles
Club	US 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 2009 Novi Sad 110 m hurdles European Athletics U23 Championships 2011 Ostrava 110 m hurdles Representing  England Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi 110 m hurdles

Education

Born in Westminster, London,[4][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 Masters in Management with a specialisation in UK Targeted Absolute Return Equity Fund Management.[8]

Family

Clarke is the son of Sir Tobias 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.[4]

Junior athletics career

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.[9]

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. [10][11]

Senior athletics career

In June 2010, Clarke won the UK National Under-23 Title in a wind-assisted time (+2.5 m/s) of 13.60secs.[12] 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.[13]

Clarke became national champion when he won the UK Senior 110 m hurdles title in 13.58s in July 2011,[14] 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

On 24 June 2012, he achieved selection for Great Britain in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.[15] 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 4th place with a time of 13.39 seconds beating the 2009 World Champion, Ryan Brathwaite, into 5th.[16]

Post London

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.[17] He returned to International competition in 2014 finishing 8th 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.[18]

In March 2015 he was appointed Team Captain of Great Britain at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague.[19] He finished 5th 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 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, USA 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.

Personal bests

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

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

1. "WSEH AC Archived 30 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine"
2. Simon Hart (28 September 2010). "Commonwealth Games 2010: Charles Lawrence Somerset Clarke eyes next hurdle". Telegraph.co.uk.
3. http://www.athletics-weekly.com/article.php?id=951%5B%5D
4. "About".
5. "- Person Page 22615". thepeerage.com.
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
9. "Unknown Page". topsinathletics.com.
10. "European Athletics Athlete Database".
11. UKA Five Medals At Euro Juniors Archived 28 July 2011 at Archive.today
12. "Clarke eyes European trials after storming hurdles win in Bedford - More than the games". Archived from the original on 22 June 2010.
13. "Easy as 1-2-3: England's record high in hurdles". 9 October 2010.
14. Jessica Creighton. "BBC Sport - Mo Farah wins national 5,000 m title but set to focus on 10,000 m". BBC Sport.
15. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 27 June 2012. Retrieved 25 June 2012.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
16. m-hurdles/phase=atm012100/index.html "110 m hurdles men results - Athletics - London 2012 Olympics" Check |url= value (help). london2012.com.
17. "BBC Sport". BBC Sport.
18. "Sharman has to settle for silver after hitting hurdles - Telegraph".
19. "Hatton and Clarke progress at Prague European Indoor Championships - Athletics Weekly".