Sharman goes from Gladiators to going for gold

(Getty Images)

There was a time when William Sharman was not a contender for medals in the international track and field arena. He was the official timekeeper on the Gladiators television show.

It is different now. Having emerged from the shadows to make his mark in the heat of World Championship battle in Berlin last August, this Northamptonshire man of many talents starts the 2010 outdoor track season as a big British hope for honours at the European Championships in Barcelona in July, and at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi in October. If he manages to pick up the momentum he generated last summer, it would take more than a Goliath, a Destroyer or a Wolf to stop the 25-year-old high-hurdler.

At the start of 2009, Sharman was ranked 103rd in the world in the 110m hurdles. He only scraped into the British team for the World Championships as a late addition and yet came within a whisker of a medal in the Olympiastadion, finishing fourth in the final in 13.30sec. It was a quantum leap for the Lagos-born, Corby-raised Sharman, a former national junior decathlon champion whose gifts beyond the track and field arena have earned him a place in the BBC Youth Orchestra of the Year, a BA in economics and an MSc in banking and finance.

A year ago, with no breakthrough in sight and a young family to support, Sharman was planning to put his athletics ambitions on the back burner and start a career in the world of high finance. Now, having established himself as a genuine medal contender for 2012, the Belgrave Harrier is on "Podium-level" funding from UK Athletics and has a sponsorship deal with adidas.

Sharman runs his first race of 2010 tomorrow in the Loughborough International meeting. He intended to compete in the indoor season until he fell and broke his left wrist while training in South Africa in January. "The bone has healed now," Sharman said, "but the ligaments and tendons are still repairing, so I haven't got the same range of movement. When I'm on the starting blocks it's a bit of a compromise but at least it's only for a few seconds.

"I'm in a very hard training phase at the moment, so Sunday's run isn't going to be to set off fireworks. It's more just to get a race on the board. The aim is to be running faster later in the season, for the European Championships and the trials before that, and also the Commonwealth Games."

Sharman trains at the UK Athletics High Performance Centre at Loughborough University under the guidance of the Polish hurdles guru George Macieuvitch. It was his previous coach who got him involved in Gladiators, in 2008, to help finance his athletics career. John Anderson, the Scot who guided Dave Moorcroft to the world 5,000m record in 1982 and Liz McColgan to the World Championship 10,000m crown in 1991, was the referee on the show.

"I'm not involved in Gladiators any more and I don't think there's any intention to bring out another series," Sharman said. "I don't watch television much, but I know that there are repeats on because people tell me. It was nice to be involved in it. It earned me a bit of savings to help me train full-time."