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Paul McNamara

Team GB Olympic medallist Toby Harries has said that Hong Kong provided the perfect setting to prepare for this weekend’s World Athletics Relays in Guangzhou.
Harries is embarking on the second phase of his career, having switched last year to running the 400 metres after considering quitting because he felt “down and out” after a period of stagnation in the 200m.
He documented his bid to qualify for Great Britain’s 2024 Olympics 4x400m men’s team for more than 20,000 social media followers, who saw Harries’ mission end with a hard-earned bronze medal.
“I’d been working for 10 years with nothing to show for it,” said Harries, who had overcome tearing his hamstring off the bone, as well as about 20 other tears, at the outset of his career.
“If I was going to fail aiming for the biggest event in the world, I wanted to show people you should never give up.”

He went to Paris following injury and illness, and, while the mixed-relay event was happening, Harries was in the warm-up area “doing my own Olympic final” for the men’s quartet.
“I had to do a time trial to show I had the speed and form to run,” said Harries, who ended up running in the 4x400m heat and was a reserve for the final.
“I couldn’t speak for 15-to-20 minutes when I was told [that he would run in the heat] … I don’t think I’ll have that feeling again.”
After his “most brutal winter”, when Harries was “throwing up twice a week, losing weight and constantly trying to progress”, he ran personal best times in both the 200m (20.22 seconds) and 400m (45.68) last month.
The 26-year-old, therefore, said a place in GB’s first-choice quartet, and an individual spot, for September’s Tokyo World Championships was a “realistic ambition”.
To qualify for Tokyo, Harries’ relay team must claim a top-14 finish in Guangdong.
Staging a holding camp at Hong Kong Sports Institute (HKSI) allowed GB to maintain distance from their rivals.
“There’s a lot of psychology in sprinting,” Harries said. “If you’re thinking about what other teams are doing, you’re not paying attention to your own strengths – which is unhealthy.”
Harries said HKSI provided “great facilities”, and certain access to their staple Western foods.



 

 
 


 


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Coming straight from a five-week camp in warm Florida, where he lowered those personal times, Harries still needed to adjust to the Asian humidity.
Above all, he said, Hong Kong allowed the athletes to “explore and have fun”.
“Being able to switch off is just as important as the ability to switch on … the mental side decides who wins races,” said Harries, who visited Repulse Bay, The Peak, Central and Jordan, and also watched a drone show and had a “go-faster haircut” during his week-long stay.
The time in Hong Kong was also a rare bonding opportunity for athletes who are typically strewn around the world. The “honest and transparent” squad generates a different climate from the one a 21-year-old Harries experienced after he was involved in a failed handover with Rabah Yousif in the 2019 4x400m World Championships final.
“I got a lot of hate from that team,” said Harries, who added that “they didn’t uphold the ritual of post-race analysis … a lot of blame was thrown around to save face”.
“I was so young, I couldn’t separate the lack of support from my ability to run 400m,” he added. “I felt it was an unsupportive, dishonest and untransparent environment.”
Harries made the “bad decision” to quit 400m running after that disappointment, and now tries to be “the role model I wish I’d had when I joined that team”.
Harries also made a “rash decision” when he was 16, when he sacrificed a potential rugby career for athletics. A member of Harlequins’ elite development group, alongside friend and England fullback Marcus Smith, Harries said he “would be England level now if I’d kept playing”.
“I was very quick, had good ball skills and was good at hitting lines,” he said.
He was persuaded by 1992 Olympic 400m hurdles champion Sally Gunnell and her husband, the coach Jon Bigg, to commit to running after strong underage international performances.



 

 
 


 


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“I don’t have any regrets. I sometimes miss rugby, but sprinting suits my lifestyle: I’m independent and like to choose where I train and live,” Harries said.
Despite two “savage” training camps in Jamaica with Yohan Blake – who “saw the speed and training effort of a world class sprinter in me” – Harries still did not get the rewards in the 200m. He was contemplating retirement when his coach David Sadkin persuaded him to return to the 400m.
Thoughts of retirement have now been replaced by a quest to reach the 2028 Olympics. “I’ve seen I can be a world-class runner,” Harries added.
“You get used to certain levels of pain; when I finish a lactic session, it feels like I’ve overcome a challenge,” he said. “In the past, I felt sick and horrible and that I never wanted to do it again. You never fully get used to it, but you get better and faster.”


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Toby Harries and his Great Britain team in training at HKSI for the World Athletics Relays in Guangzhou. Photo: British Athletics

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Sport

Toby Harries targeting more Olympic glory after sacrificing potential international rugby career and coming back from brink of retirement


Toby Harries targeting more Olympic glory after sacrificing potential international rugby career and coming back from brink of retirement.


World Athletics Championships

Hong Kong ‘great’ base for Team GB athletes as they embark on World Championships quest

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Toby Harries targeting more Olympic glory after sacrificing potential international rugby career and coming back from brink of retirement

Toby Harries targeting more Olympic glory after sacrificing potential international rugby career and coming back from brink of retirement