Phil Sesemann interview: The Leeds doctor who quit medicine to achieve Paris Olympics dream

Bathed in sweat, his lungs burning, his legs aching, the 31-year-old from Leeds had fallen off the pace he needed to set to realise his dream of qualifying for the Olympics.

It hadn’t always been his dream to call himself an Olympian. A life in medicine had been his calling. But ever since his passion for running saw him finish seventh in the London Marathon three years ago, his perspective started to shift.

Then back in the capital last year, a time of two hours 10 minutes that would have got him into previous Olympic marathons, convinced him he was capable of running with the very best.

Which brings us back to the picturesque Spanish city of Seville and the last three kilometres of just his sixth marathon and last chance to qualify for the Paris Olympics.

“I just couldn’t pick up my legs, I thought I’m going to miss it by one or two seconds,” remembers Sesemann.

“I pretty much convinced myself that I was going to be literally just a second outside of the time and be absolutely heartbroken.

“I’d been completely aware of the time I was on, I was checking my watch the whole way through.

“I knew I needed to run 3.02.2 pace per kilometre, so every time I went through a kilometre mark I’m working out what my split is and multiplying that by two to work out if I’m above pace or below pace. By that final 3km and I was too slow for the 3.02.”

That’s when all the training of the last nine months kicked in. When the decision to quit the day job as a junior doctor to focus solely on his running began to count.

When the high-altitude training in the Pyrenees last summer and Kenya in January took effect.

“I somehow managed to muster a tiny little sprint at the end,” Sesemann told The Yorkshire Post.

“When I crossed the line I managed to see the clock and realised I’d just snook under the time by a few seconds.

"It was complete disbelief and the emotion that took over me.”

Sesemann’s time was two hours, eight minutes and four seconds, six seconds inside the qualifying time.

His place on the British Olympic team was confirmed on Wednesday.

“Just brilliant, I’m absolutely thrilled,” he said. “That final 3k was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I just about held on.”

The achievement vindicates the decision he took in May to put his medical career on hold.

Sesemann studied medicine at the University of Leeds and had been combining being a doctor with his love of running, often setting out on longer jaunts with his faithful dogs Kipchoge and Haile – named after his favourite runners - by his side.

But after beating Mo Farah in the four-time Olympic champion’s final London Marathon in 2023, Sesemann realised it was now or never.

“There was a realisation that this was possible for me now,” he says.

“It entailed being completely focused on that, setting a plan of seven and a half months to be in the best possible shape come December to run in Valencia.”

Backed by sponsors, he took three training camps at high altitude in the Pyrenees and a 10-week spell in the autumn back home under his Leeds City Athletics Club coach Andrew Henderson that led him to Valencia in December.

When he failed to get the qualifying time there he took his preparation one step further - a month in Kenya.

“I got pushed every single day, I was spat out the back quite often,” he admits.

“I wouldn’t have to do any work on the front, I would just be getting pushed and pushed, the coaches leaning out of the minibus shouting at me to keep up.

“I was running alongside Kenyans, athletes from other countries who had run faster times than I had, they were in the 2hr 05, 2hr 06 bracket, so I knew if I wasn’t too far off them I could be ready to give it a good go. It didn’t matter that I was slower than everybody else out there, because of the altitude.

“Even if I didn’t get to the end of the session or if I was a long way off the back, I genuinely believed that no one had worked harder that day and that’s what I needed to do to improve.”

As he showed in Seville, dedicating himself to the training had worked.

So now for Paris.

Sesemann will not run any more marathons before the Olympic race on Saturday, August 10.

He will build up to longer distances over the coming months but the focus will be on training, preparing himself for the ultimate test.

“It will be a different marathon to what we are used to because it’s got two big hills in it, one of them is very steep, and then the added challenge of Paris in August, so even though it’s got an 8am start time, it’ll be very hot,” he said.

“There’s going to be quite a lot of fun to be had with the planning and preparation - it’s an exciting time.”