Max Burgin interview: Halifax Harrier mentioned in same breath as Seb Coe and Steve Cram set for golden summer at Commonwealth Games and World Championships

Expect that name to burst through in the busy summer of 2022.

Mined from a rich middle-distance running seam in Halifax, Burgin’s 800m times had been getting quicker over the years only for that progress to be stunted early last summer when injury robbed him of almost an entire season and the chance to represent his country at the Olympic Games.

This year is all about making up for lost time for Burgin, with three big championships on the horizon.

His selection for Team England to compete at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham was confirmed this week, his selection for the world championships in Oregon before then is a foregone conclusion and then there is the European Championships in the middle of August.

So why is a 20-year-old Yorkshireman who missed almost the entirety of an Olympic summer suddenly in the conversation for three major championships?

Because in Finland last week he ran the 800m so fast that only three men in British middle-distance running history have completed two laps quicker – Olympic heroes Sebastian Coe, Steve Cram and Peter Elliott.

For more present-day context, Burgin’s time of 1:43.52 is the fastest by anyone in the world this year.

“It sets me up perfectly,” says Burgin of his world-leading time which he clocked in a fashion reminiscent of the great Coe, by doing it from the front.

“I’ve established that I can run world class times now and particularly the way I did it, front-running, proves that I can pull that out in any situation, I’m not reliant on how a race goes, I should be able to produce those sorts of times regularly.

“There’s definitely more to come, that was only my second race of the year.”

Burgin does not say that line with arrogance. He is speaking with the confidence that he has rediscovered after a frustrating 12 months watching close friends like Keely Hodgkinson – also aged 20 but already an Olympic silver medallist in the 800m – capture the headlines.

“What Keely has achieved shows just how far people our age can get in the sport, that there’s no limits on us being young, you can compete at the top,” says Burgin.

“For me, I’m in good shape, I’m going in the right direction, hopefully I can maintain that going into the next few championships. I’ve come a long way from last year.

“Missing out on the Olympics was awful but having such a disappointing season was the hardest aspect of it, so to now be in a position where I can have a full season and make up for that is really great. I only want to look forwards now.”

Such an exciting summer ahead would have been scarcely imaginable for Burgin just seven or eight years ago. He ran cross-country in primary school but lost interest. He tried football and rugby, only to be lured back into running because “my parents were a bit concerned I wasn’t doing enough exercise”.

The young Burgin had good running pedigree around him. Dad Ian was an 800m runner and his grandfather Brian a coach at Halifax Harriers.

“They were huge influences on me, real sources of motivation,” says Burgin, who began as an 800m runner when he joined his grandfather’s club and has never strayed from the two-lap distance. “Right from the start I showed quite a good aptitude for it. My first year I won every 800m race I did, I didn’t do many, but it showed I had something for the 800m.”

Being mentioned in the same breath as the likes of Coe, Cram and Elliott is not proving a burden for Burgin, far from it. He is embracing it.

There are other similarities to the legendary Coe whose stamina was famously built by running up the hills of Sheffield.

“Hill training is definitely a big factor in my schedule too,” Burgin tells The Yorkshire Post.

“We do hill reps up the hill just next to my estate, it’s a good 200m stretch that gets steeper towards the end, it’s an awful little thing.

“When it comes to hard hills around the local area we’re spoilt for choice around Halifax; we’ve got Trooper Lane, Shibden Wall, these climbs that are more famous for cycling, but they’re just brutal hills, and certainly in winter I like to incorporate them into my long runs for a bit of a challenge.

“I don’t have the Strava records for any of them yet, so that’s maybe something to look out for.”

Maybe a challenge for this winter, after a summer in which the name of Max Burgin becomes established.