Sam Atkin (born 14 March 1993) is a British Olympic

athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-devel ...

specialising in

long-distance running Long-distance running, or endurance running, is a form of continuous running over distances of at least . Physiologically, it is largely aerobic in nature and requires stamina as well as mental strength. Within endurance running comes two d ...

, predominantly the

5000 metres The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a stan ...

and

10,000 m The 10,000 metres or the 10,000-metre run is a common long-distance track running event. The event is part of the athletics programme at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships, and is common at championship level events. The race ...

races. He is the British record holder for the 5 km road race and the British indoor record holder for the

3000 metres The 3000 metres or 3000-metre run is a track running event, also commonly known as the "3K" or "3K run", where 7.5 laps are run around an outdoor 400 m track, or 15 laps around a 200 m indoor track. It is debated whether the 3000m shoul ...

Running career

Sam Atkin won the North of England cross-country under-17 men's title in Blackburn. Also a keen footballer and tennis player as a teenager, in athletics he started with Grimsby Harriers and moved to

Cleethorpes Cleethorpes () is a seaside town on the estuary of the Humber in North East Lincolnshire, England with a population of 38,372 in 2020. It has been permanently occupied since the 6th century, with fishing as its original industry, then develo ...

and eventually Lincoln Wellington, where he teamed up with coach Rob Lewis. In 2011, aged 18, he had the chance to study in the United States and went to Lewis–Clark State College in Idaho. Atkin's progress was affected by a rare problem called Freiberg disease, where one of the metatarsals in his foot protrudes upwards, causing discomfort. He graduated from LCSC with a degree in Business Management and Sports Administration in 2016, stayed in Idaho and also coaches other athletes. While coaching and competing he also studied at

Western Governors University Western Governors University (WGU) is a private online university based in Millcreek, Utah. The university uses an online competency-based learning model. Degrees awarded by WGU are accredited by the NWCCU, ACBSP, CAEP, CAHIIM, and CCN ...

and graduated with an MBA in 2019. At the Sound Running Track Meet in California on 5 December 2020, Atkin ran the fourth fastest time by a British athlete over the

10,000 metres The 10,000 metres or the 10,000-metre run is a common long-distance track running event. The event is part of the athletics programme at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships, and is common at championship level events. The race ...

behind only Mo Farah, Jon Brown and

Eamonn Martin Eamonn or Éamon or Eamon may refer to: *Eamonn (given name), an Irish male given name *Eamon (singer) (born 1983), American R&B singer-songwriter and harmonicist * ''Eamon'' (video game), a 1980 computer role-playing game for the Apple II *"Éamon ...

. Despite starting that race as a pacemaker, he hit the Olympic qualifying time for the

2020 Tokyo Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

where he represented Britain in the 10,000 metres race, but did not finish as he suffered an injury mid-race. On 27 January 2023 at the John Thomas Terrier Classic on a Boston University track, the 29-year-old broke Mo Farah's seven-year British 3000 m 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 The 5K run is a long-distance road running competition over a distance of . Also referred to as the 5K road race, 5 km, or simply 5K, it is the shortest of the most common road running distances. It is usually distinguished from the 5000 met ...

record with 13:16 in Lille, France. Due to injury he didn’t compete after March 2023 until he ran a new

personal best of 12:58.73 in Boston, Massachusetts in January 2024.

Personal bests

;Outdoor * 800 metres – 1:53.13 ( Spokane, WA 2018) *

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletic ...

– 3:45.07 ( Eugene, OR 2018) *

Mile The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a British imperial unit and United States customary unit of distance; both are based on the older English unit of length equal to 5,280 English ...

– 3:58.60 (

St. Louis, MO St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which ...

2018) *

– 7:39.71 (

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...

2021) *

– 13:15.31 ( Eugene, OR 2022) *

– 27:26.58 (

San Juan Capistrano, CA San Juan Capistrano (Spanish for "St. John of Capistrano") is a city in Orange County, California, located along the Orange Coast. The population was 34,593 at the 2010 census. San Juan Capistrano was founded by the Spanish in 1776, when St. J ...

2020) ;Indoor * 800 metres – 1:53.79 (

Nampa, ID Nampa () is the largest city in Canyon County, Idaho. Its population was 100,200 at the time of the 2020 United States census, 2020 Census. It is Idaho's third-most populous city. Nampa is about west of Boise, Idaho, Boise along Interstate 84 in ...

2018) *

– 4:05.39 (

2020) *

– 7:31.97 ( Boston, MA 2023) *

– 12:58.73 ( Boston, MA 2024) ;Road *

– 13:16 ( Lille 2023)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Atkin, Sam 1993 births Living people British male long-distance runners English male long-distance runners Olympic athletes for Great Britain Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games competitors for England Athletes (track and field) at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Sportspeople from Grimsby 21st-century British people