Why Halifax's Max Burgin could emerge as one of Team GB's athletics heroes in Paris
The 22-year-old has for a long time been one of the most exciting prospects in British middle distance running, only for his journey up to this point to have been punctuated by injury after injury.
Take this year for instance.
He has been struggling since the his sural nerve that runs down the back of the calf became trapped, causing no end of problems in his legs that led to plenty of training sessions missed and even worse when you’re trying to qualify for a first Olympics - races.
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In fact, when he rocked up on the startline at the UK Championships and Olympic trials in Manchester at the end of June, it was for his first meet of the year.
“It was really bad at the start of the season, I was struggling to race, struggling to train,” Burgin tells The Yorkshire Post.
“I’d been struggling with the nerve issue for about two years now, but I’d kind of just got a clear run of training in just before the UK Champs, I just had to hope that I could get away with it.”
Not only did he get away with it, Burgin reminded everyone of his talent over two laps of the track.
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From the gun he got to the front in his Saturday heat in the 800m and looked comfortable in breasting the tape first.
“It was a curse and a blessing that heat because it was really tough, they really stacked it so I needed to run a fast time, 1m45s to secure a place in the final,” says Burgin.
“So it was good in the one way because with it being my first race it gave me the confidence for the race the next day that I do still have that form in my legs.
“But I was worried I might have over-cooked me slightly.”


He needn’t have worried. What was more impressive after all his ailments - 2023 was similarly blighted with injury and led to him struggling to eighth place in the World Championship semi-final in Budapest - was that he was able to back up his run in Saturday’s heat with another good time in the final a day later.
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Hide Ad“The aim was top-two for those automatic qualifying spots for Paris, that was as much as I could have hoped for from that day and I achieved it, so very pleasing to achieve it,” says Burgin.
From frustrations with injury to a ticket on the Eurostar to Paris in a matter of days, and this enormous potential - honed on the hills overlooking Halifax - is on the road to realisation.
It comes three years later than he had planned given injury wiped out most of his 2021 season and robbed him of a chance to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics, which merely adds to the excitement.
“It was very much last minute, wasn’t it?” he acknowledges.
“But I’m buzzing with it, I wasn’t sure all season leading up to it what this season was going to have in store for me but I’m very happy to get the qualification.
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Hide Ad“The Olympics is the big one, I’ve run at world championships before, but the whole media attention around the Olympics, even the kitting out that I’ve been to, it’s all just on such a big scale, there’s a reason it’s so much bigger for elite athletes to get to this than it is for any other event on the calendar.
“I’m sure it’ll be an amazing experience.”
He might not be a bad shout for a medal either. Because when running well, he can be up there with the best in the world.
In 2022, right before the injury curse struck again and forced him to withdraw from Team England duty on the eve of the Commonwealth Games, Burgin ran the 800m in 1:43.52 at a meeting in Finland which was the quickest in the world that year at that time.
Then last year at the Diamond League meeting in London he ran 1:43.85, before the health frustrations resurfaced.
What has he learnt through it all?
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Hide Ad“A lot, but not necessarily on the race track, it’s more off it,” says the Halifax Harrier.
“I’m a much more professional individual than I was back then, my approach to races and being able to appreciate what I’m doing is a lot greater having not been able to perform at the top level since then.
“It’s made me a lot more grateful for this opportunity.
“Even when I was running up those hills for training back in Halifax, I tried not to think about the Olympics because I didn’t want to jinx it.
“It was always an ambition but I never wanted to be saying to people I’m going to the Olympics or I’ll make it one day - even though I always hoped.”
Hinchliffe and Lincoln eye Diamond League glory
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Hide AdTwo of Yorkshire’s Olympic-bound athletes are in action at the Diamond League meeting at the Olympic Stadium in London today.
Sheffield sprint sensation Louie Hinchliffe, who won the NCAA and UK Championship titles in the last six weeks, tests himself against a world class field in the 100m.
Noah Lyles, the favourite for the Olympic 100m title, versus British star Zharnal Hughes and former world champion Yohan Blake is the headline attraction.
And York shot putter Scott Lincoln goes up against seven men who have all thrown further than him as he continues his lead into a second Olympics.
The athletics programme at the Paris Olympics runs from Thursday August 1 to Sunday August 11.