Welly runner Sam Atkin has been selected to compete for Team GB in the men’s 5000m Olympic games in Paris this month.
Born in Grimsby, Sam was a member at Cleethorpes until 14 years old, where his coach Mike Collins contacted Rob Lewis and discussed the potential of him joining Lincoln Wellington. He was showing great potential and found himself running solo at Cleethorpes, and training with faster athletes would benefit him. It was after this conversation he joined our club.
Rising through the ranks, he finished 2nd in the Northern XC Champs that year, and won it the following year, before leaving school, gaining a scholarship for USA state college athletics at Lewis-Clark. Here he submitted arguably the finest full season in Lewis-Clark State XC/track history, finishing as national runner-up in XC and winning national championships at indoor and outdoor track nationals. The only races he started that didn’t end with him in the winner’s circle were the national preview and national meet, where he was runner-up both times. He set the LCSC XC record for the 8K course with time of 23:25 at Inland Empire Championships on Warriors’ home course.
Last year at the John Thomas Terrier Classic in Boston, USA, the Puma-sponsored athlete broke Mo Farah’s seven-year British 3000m indoor record (7:33.1) with a time of 7:31.97. Atkin took 15 seconds off his personal best and set the fastest 3000 m (indoors or out) by a UK athlete in history as Farah’s outdoor record stood at 7:32.62 at the time. On 19 March, he sliced four seconds off Marc Scott’s 2020 British 5 kilometres road record with 13:16 in Lille, France.
Once more he broke his own record, with a UK all-time #2 time of 12:54.66 for the 5000m outdoor at the Los Angeles Grand Prix on 17 May 2024. Sam is now a life-member of LWAC, and is joined on Team GBs men’s 5000m team alongside Patrick Denver and George Mills.
Let’s all cheer Sam on in his race, having had to pull out mid-race at the last Olympic games in Tokyo with injury during the 10,000m.