Andrew Pozzi
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Andrew William Pozzi (born 15 May 1992) is a British
hurdling Hurdling is the act of jumping over an obstacle at a high speed or in a sprint. In the early 19th century, hurdlers ran at and jumped over each hurdle (sometimes known as 'burgles'), landing on both feet and checking their forward motion. Today, ...
athlete. He was the 2018 indoor World Champion at 60 metres hurdles. He was the 2012 UK 60m and 110m Champion and holds the record for the fastest ever time run by a UK junior hurdler. The record time, 13.29 seconds, was set on 3 July 2011 in
Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's 2 ...
,
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
at the Bauhaus Junior Gala. Pozzi is coached by Malcolm Arnold, the former coach of
Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...
silver medalist and two-time
World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...
gold medalist
Colin Jackson Colin Ray Jackson, (born 18 February 1967) is a Welsh former sprint and hurdling athlete who specialised in the 110 metres hurdles. During a career in which he represented Great Britain and Wales, he won an Olympic silver medal, became wor ...
and 400m
Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...
gold medalist
John Akii-Bua John Akii-Bua (3 December 1949 – 20 June 1997) was a Ugandan hurdler and the first Olympic champion from his country Uganda and Africa at large. In 1986, he was a recipient of the Silver Olympic Order. Biography Akii-Bua was raised in a f ...
. On 26 November 2011, Pozzi won "Outstanding Athlete of the Year" at the UK Athletics Awards.


Background

Pozzi was born in
Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-we ...
,
Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...
on 15 May 1992. He attended St Gregory's Catholic Primary School in Stratford and later St Benedict's High School in neighbouring town
Alcester Alcester () is a market town and civil parish of Roman origin at the junction of the River Alne and River Arrow in the Stratford-on-Avon District in Warwickshire, England, approximately west of Stratford-upon-Avon, and 7 miles south of Redditc ...
. He then went on to complete his A-levels at
Alcester Grammar School Alcester Grammar School (AGS) is a co-educational 11-18 maintained selective grammar school, situated in Alcester, Warwickshire, England. On 1 April 2011, Alcester Grammar School became the first school in south Warwickshire to achieve Academy ...
before attending the
University of the West of England The University of the West of England (also known as UWE Bristol) is a public research university, located in and around Bristol, England. The institution was know as the Bristol Polytechnic in 1970; it received university status in 1992 and ...
, Bristol. Since 2018 he has been in a relationship with fellow athlete
Katarina Johnson-Thompson Katarina Mary Johnson-Thompson (born 9 January 1993) is an English athlete primarily known as an elite multi-eventer, both as a heptathlete and an indoor pentathlete. She has been World Champion in both disciplines, and a double Commonwealth G ...
.


Junior career

Pozzi begun his career competing for Stratford AC, of which he is still a first-claim member. From 2010-11 he competed as a junior for 'Avon Spa', a joint effort between Stratford AC and Leamington C&AC in the National Junior Athletic League. Pozzi currently holds the record for the fastest ever time run by a UK junior hurdler (13.29s), setting the record at the Bauhaus Junior Gala in Manheim, Germany, on 3 July 2011. He won a Silver medal at the 2011 European Junior Athletics Championships in Tallinn, Estonia with a time of 13.57s and immediately began focusing on making the transition from junior events to senior competitions. He ended his junior career on a high, beating his senior rivals in the 110m hurdles to win the McCain UK Challenge Senior Final with a time of 13.84 – his second fastest wind-legal clocking over the senior hurdles, made all the more impressive given the -1.0 m/s headwind.


Senior career

Pozzi started life as a senior athlete well, winning his first 7 races and clocking a new personal best of 7.62 over 60m hurdles at the Birmingham Games. He went on to be crowned UK Indoor Champion on 12 February after winning at the Aviva European Indoor Trials & UK Championships in Sheffield, once again equalling his personal best. On 18 February he competed at the Aviva Grand Prix against Olympic Gold medalist and World Champion Liu Xiang, and World Indoor Champion Dayron Robles. Pozzi performed well, finishing 7th in the final after automatically qualifying by coming 3rd in his heat with a time of 7.62. Pozzi was selected to represent Great Britain at the 2012 World Indoor Championships in Istanbul, his first senior International representation. He was the only British male sprint hurdler selected. He surpassed expectations by winning his heat, beating Liu Xiang in the process, with a new personal best of 7.61s which also made him fastest qualifier. Pozzi continued to impress by finishing second in the semi-finals with another personal best of 7.56s making him the second fastest British 19-year-old ever, just 0.01s behind Colin Jackson's record. He finished 4th in the final with a time of 7.58s. On 7 May 2012, Pozzi won gold at the
BUCS British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) is the governing body for higher education sport in the United Kingdom. BUCS was formed in June 2008 following a merger of British Universities Sports Association (BUSA) and University College Sport ...
championships at the Olympic Stadium, London. In the heats he achieved the Olympic "A" qualifying standard time of 13.52s. It was his first outdoor race of the season. He went on to win in the final with an even better time of 13.35s, making him the fastest European 19-year-old over 110m hurdles of all time.


London 2012 Summer Olympics

Pozzi was selected to compete for Team GB after winning the British Olympic Trials on 24 June 2012. Whilst competing at a Diamond League event in Crystal Palace on 13 July 2012 he became injured in the final but was set to recover in time for the Olympic games. By the date of his race on 7 August it was reported that Pozzi was not fully fit but would compete. After clearing the first hurdle it became clear that he had not recovered and immediately clutched his hamstring. He later said "The last month has been a nightmare. I haven’t been able to get my hamstring sorted. Being in the Olympics is all I’ve been waiting and training so hard for. To leave like that is heart‑breaking."Team GB's Andrew Pozzi crashes out of 110m hurdles in moments
''The Independent''. Retrieved on 10 August 2012.


Birmingham 2018 World Indoor Athletic Championship

Pozzi qualified for finals with a terrific run in both heats and semi-finals. In the finals, he edged
Jarret Eaton Jarret Eaton (born June 24, 1989) is an American track and field athlete, known for running hurdles. He won the silver medal in the 60 metre hurdles at the 2018 World Indoor Championships while being coached by Lawrence Terry, and took a bronze ...
of the USA by one-hundredth of a second to clinch the gold medal with a time of 7.46 sec.


Personal bests


References


External links

* * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pozzi, Andrew 1992 births Living people Sportspeople from Warwickshire People from Stratford-upon-Avon English male hurdlers British 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 competitors for England Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 Commonwealth Games World Athletics Championships athletes for Great Britain World Athletics Indoor Championships winners European Athletics Indoor Championships winners British Athletics Championships winners Team Bath track and field athletes People educated at Alcester Grammar School English people of Italian descent Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics