British Athletics have named Lawrence Clarke as captain of the Great Britain & Northern Ireland team for the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague.
The sprint hurdler, who was recently crowned Sainsbury’s British Indoor champion, was selected by British Athletics Performance Director Neil Black and will lead the team at the championships in the Czech capital 5 – 8 March 2015.
“It’s an absolute privilege (to be captain),” said Clarke. “I’ve worked so hard for so many years to be a part of the team and to be honoured in this way is a great privilege. I feel very lucky that Neil Black has asked me to lead the team and hopefully it will be a very successful championship.
Neil said my indoor season has been going very well and I had performed consistently at championships. He felt it was time in my career and that I could be an inspiration to some of the team.”
Clarke heads to Prague third on the European rankings for 2015 and he is only too aware of the competition he faces at the O2 Arena.
“I want to take it round by round,” he explained. “Consistency for me is the most important thing, if I can get into that environment and perform to the best of my ability that’s what’s important to me.
I’ve got a tough test. There is Pascal Martinot-Lagarde, Dimitri Bascou, who is European leader at the moment and the world junior champion Wilhem Belocian. There are a lot of people who are running well.
I feel really confident in my ability. If I can get out of the starting blocks than I should be mid-7.5 and that’s where I think the medals will be won.”
