Confident Toby aiming to hit heights on international bow
ATHLETICS: THE fearlessness and confidence of youth means that Toby Ulm is positively relishing his international debut at the World Schools’ Championships this week.
Some may misinterpret Ulm’s confidence as arrogance.
But it is refreshing to hear this young man, a member of Swindon Harriers, outline his ambitions and make it clear that they go well beyond just taking part’.
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“I’m hoping to win it,” said Ulm, who will line up for the heats of the 400m hurdles tomorrow morning with the final to follow on Saturday.
"I am not just going out there to take part.
“I have no idea what the competition will be like but I’m not going out to Greece to run for second place.”
The 17-year-old Ulm, who is jointly coached by Howard Moscrop at the Harriers and former Olympic hurdles champion David Hemery, was picked for the Great Britain team thanks to his victories in the English Schools’ and Home Countries’ Championships last year.
He has continued that good form this season and only ten days ago he won the South West Schools’ title in a new championship record of 53.3secs, breaking the old record held by Olympic athlete Max Robertson.
But Ulm believes he has yet to reach his peak this summer so Thessalonica this weekend wouldn’t be a bad time to start.
“My times so far haven’t been blisteringly quick compared to what I wanted but I have been winning all my races by about three or four seconds so haven’t needed to be that quick,” added Ulm.
"I’m sure that will change in Greece. I’ll have to run flat-out in both the heats and the final.
"I’ve got to attack both races if I want to win.
"This is my first true, international championships.
“I have done the English Schools’ and then the Home Countries’ last year but this is now the serious stuff and I am definitely very excited by it.”
The only question mark against Ulm is how he will cope not only with the level of competition but also with the heat, which even at 9am on Friday could be pretty intense.
But on both fronts he seems to be in safe hands with his coaching partnership of Moscrop and Hemery.
“Howard is the guy who gets me into shape physically while David concentrates more on the hurdles side,” explained Ulm.
“I take things off both of them and it seems to work very well.”
Certainly both men can give Ulm an insight into what it takes to succeed at the highest level and there can’t be many of Ulm’s rivals who can call on an Olympic champion for advice.
But this weekend Ulm is on his own and it will be intriguing to see how he goes.
But listen to the man himself and there appears to be only one outcome.
“As far as I’m concerned it is all systems go and I’m raring to get cracking,” said Ulm.
10:45am today