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.[9]
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 in July 2009, in Novi Sad, Serbia.[10][11]
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.[12] 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. It is the first time in history that England have completed a 1-2-3 clean sweep in the 110 m hurdles.[13]
Clarke became national champion when he won the UK Senior 110 m hurdles title in 13.58s in July 2011,[14] earning him a place on the UK team at the World Championships in Daegu.
He competed at the 2011 World Athletics Championships 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 who went on to win the Championships after Dayron Robles, the 2008 Olympic champion and world record holder, was disqualified after the final.
On 24 June 2012, he achieved selection for Great Britain in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.[15] 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, into fifth.[16]
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.[17] He returned to International competition in 2014 finishing eighth at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. Two weeks later he competed at the European Athletics Championships in Zurich only to tear his hamstring five minutes before the call room for the final.[18]
After the World Championships he made the decision to leave Malcolm Arnold and Bath and moved to Paris to train with Giscard Samba Koundys and Dimitri Bascou; at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Portland, Oregon, U.S. in March 2016, he just missed out on the men's 60 m hurdles final, while Bascou won the bronze medal.
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