Sir Charles Lawrence Somerset Clarke, 7th Baronet,

OLY Oly may refer to: * Oly, informal name for Olympia, Washington, United States * OLY (: ), postnominals granted to participants in the Olympics People with the name * Oly (born 1992), American singer-songwriter and musician * Oly Hicks (born 1968 ...

(born 12 March 1990) is a former professional 110 m hurdler who finished fourth in the London Olympic Games 110 m hurdles final. He is the son of Sir Toby Clarke, 6th Baronet and succeeded to the baronetcy on his father's death in 2019. He served as Captain of the Great Britain Athletics Team at the 2015 European Athletics Indoor Championships and was coached in Bath by

Malcolm Arnold Sir Malcolm Henry Arnold (21 October 1921 – 23 September 2006) was an English composer. His works feature music in many genres, including a cycle of nine symphonies, numerous concertos, concert works, chamber music, choral music and music ...

. He was coached in Paris by Giscard Samba Koundys for the 2016 Summer Olympics in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

. He currently works for Citigroup in London. He is also a member of the American Roosevelt family.

Education

Born in

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, Clarke was educated at two independent schools: at

Summer Fields School Summer Fields is a fee-paying boys' independent day and boarding preparatory school in Summertown, Oxford. It was originally called Summerfield and used to have a subsidiary school, Summerfields, St Leonards-on-Sea (known as "Summers mi"). H ...

in the city of Oxford and

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, ...

in Berkshire. He went on to study Theology and Religious Studies at the

University of Bristol , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

, gaining a Second class honours, upper division (2:1). He studied at the

University of Bath (Virgil, Georgics II) , mottoeng = Learn the culture proper to each after its kind , established = 1886 (Merchant Venturers Technical College) 1960 (Bristol College of Science and Technology) 1966 (Bath University of Technology) 1971 (univ ...

for a master's degree in Management with a specialisation in UK Targeted Absolute Return Equity Fund Management.

Family

Clarke is the son of Sir Tobias Clarke, 6th Baronet. His sister is Theo Clarke, MP. Clarke's maternal grandfather was the Conservative MP Somerset de Chair. He takes his name Lawrence from his American ancestor

Abbott Lawrence Abbott Lawrence (December 16, 1792, Groton, Massachusetts – August 18, 1855) was a prominent American businessman, politician, and philanthropist. He was among the group of industrialists that founded a settlement on the Merrimack River that ...

Junior athletics career

Clarke was in fourth place in the 110 m hurdles at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, India. He was also the British University (BUCS) champion in the 60 m hurdles (2009) with a time of 7.83 seconds and 110 m Champion (2010) in a time of 13.85 seconds. Clarke held the No. 1 spot on the British All Time list for the Under 20 men's 3"3 110 m Hurdles until 23 May 2010. He established a new National Junior Record with a personal best of 13.37 seconds whilst also winning gold at

European Junior Athletics Championships The European Athletics U20 Championships (formerly named the European Athletics Junior Championships up to 2015) are the European championships for athletes who are under-20 athletes, which is the age range recognised by World Athletics as ju ...

in July 2009, in Novi Sad, Serbia.

Senior athletics career

In June 2010, Clarke won the UK National Under-23 Title in a wind-assisted time (+2.5 m/s) of 13.60secs. He successfully defended this title in June 2011 in his season debut that year. On 8 October 2010, Clarke won the bronze medal at the XIX Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. He finished third behind two other English hurdlers: Andy Turner (2010 European Champion) and

William Sharman William "Will" Sharman (born 12 September 1984) is a British athlete who specialises in the 110 metres hurdles. He started his career as a junior high jumper and decathlete, but focused entirely on hurdling after a shoulder injury. He made his ...

. It is the first time in history that England have completed a 1-2-3 clean sweep in the 110 m hurdles. Clarke became national champion when he won the UK Senior 110 m hurdles title in 13.58s in July 2011, earning him a place on the UK team at the World Championships in Daegu. He competed at the

2011 World Athletics Championships The 13th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () was an international athletics competition that was held in Daegu, South Korea. It started on 27 August 2011 and finished on 4 September 2011. The United States topped the medal standings in th ...

in Daegu, South Korea where he went out in the first round with a time of 13.65s (-0.2 m/s). The winner of his heat was

Jason Richardson Jason Anthoney Richardson (born January 20, 1981) is an American former professional basketball player who played 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Richardson was taken by the Golden State Warriors as the fifth overall pic ...

who went on to win the Championships after

Dayron Robles Dayron Robles (born 19 November 1986) is a Cuban track and field athlete who specialises in the 110 metre hurdles. He won his first major medal (a silver) in the 60 metres hurdles at the 2006 World Indoor Championships. He finished the 2006 sea ...

, the 2008 Olympic Champion and World Record holder, was disqualified after the final.

2012 Summer Olympics

On 24 June 2012, he achieved selection for Great Britain in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He ran a new personal best of 13.31 (-0.5 m/s) in his Olympic Semi final on 8 August. As a result, he qualified as the only European for the 110 m Men's Hurdles Final as a fastest loser. Running from lane 2 in the final he finished an unexpected fourth place with a time of 13.39 seconds beating the 2009 World Champion,

Ryan Brathwaite Ryan Brathwaite (born June 6, 1988) is a track and field athlete from Barbados who won the gold medal in the 110 metres hurdles at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics in Berlin. In recognition of his achievements, on September 17, 2009 Bra ...

, into fifth.

Post London

He broke his wrist in the winter of 2012 followed by a series of hamstring tears that saw him miss high level competition in 2013. He returned to International competition in 2014 finishing eighth at the

Glasgow Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games ( gd, Geamannan a' Cho-fhlaitheis 2014), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014, ( sco, Glesca 2014 or Glesga 2014; gd, Glaschu 2014), was an international multi-sport ev ...

. Two weeks later he competed at the

European Athletics Championships The European Athletics Championships is a biennial (from 2010) athletics event organised by the European Athletics Association and is recognised as the elite continental outdoor athletics championships for Europe. Editions First held, for men ...

in Zurich only to tear his hamstring five minutes before the call room for the European Final. In March 2015 he was appointed Team Captain of Great Britain at the

European Athletics Indoor Championships The European Athletics Indoor Championships is a biennial indoor track and field competition for European athletes that is organised by the European Athletic Association. It was held for the first time in 1970, replacing the European Indoor Games ...

in Prague. He finished fifth in the 60 m hurdles. That summer he competed at the

IAAF World Athletics Championships The World Athletics Championships (until 2019 known as the World Championships in Athletics) are a biennial Athletics (sport), athletics competition organized by World Athletics (formerly IAAF, International Association of Athletics Federations ...

in the Bird's Nest Stadium in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

exiting in the semi-finals. After the World Championships he made the decision to leave

OBE and Bath and moved to Paris to train with Giscard Samba Koundys and

Dimitri Bascou Dimitri Bascou (born 20 July 1987) is a French track and field athlete who specialises in the 110 metres hurdles. He is known for his explosive and fast starts. He won the gold medal at the 2016 European Championships and the bronze medal at th ...

. He competed at the

IAAF World Indoor Championships The World Athletics Indoor Championships are a biennial indoor track and field competition served as the global championship for that version of the sport. Organised by the World Athletics, the competition was inaugurated as the ''World Indoor G ...

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

, U.S. in March 2016 just missing out on the Men's 60 m Hurdles final. His training partner

went on to win the bronze medal. In July 2016 he was selected to represent

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

at the 2016 Summer Olympics in

, Brazil. He finished 11th, missing out on the final by 0.05 of a second. In 2016 he joined Citigroup, before becoming managing director of Duration Capital Solutions in 2022.

Personal bests

International competitions

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Lawrence Living people 1990 births Athletes from London British male hurdlers English male hurdlers Olympic male hurdlers Olympic athletes of Great Britain Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for England Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics Athletes (track and field) at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2014 Commonwealth Games World Athletics Championships athletes for Great Britain British Athletics Championships winners Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom Alumni of the University of Bristol People educated at Eton College English people of American descent English people of Dutch descent Roosevelt family Schuyler family Clarke baronets