Thomas Keen on track to maintain athletics progress

Thomas Keen is looking to take a step up in age category in his stride this year.

The Cambridge & Coleridge AC athlete made the most of his limited opportunities to compete in 2020 by heading into 2021 second in the world under-20 rankings for 1,500m and second in the British standings for 3,000m.

It is almost a year on since the former Linton Village College pupil broke the British under-20 1,500m record at the Vienna Indoor Classic. His time of 3min 44.44sec was faster than Seb Coe and Steve Ovett at the same age and was soon followed by silver in the British Indoor Championships at 1,500m.

But this year presents a sterner test for the 19-year-old with a tougher pool of older talent to go up against as he enters the under-23 category.

With time on his side though Keen, who won 3,000m gold at the European Under-18 Championships in Hungary in 2018, is hopeful of continuing his strong progress.

“I was speaking to my coach yesterday and I think the aim is going to be the European under-23s which is happening in Norway in mid-July,” he said. “Hopefully that will go ahead and we can get out and qualify and then see what I can do in the final.

“I don’t have massive expectations for it as I will be the youngest in the field and in two years’ time, when the under-23s are held again, I will also be able to compete in those, so I will get two stabs at that one.”

The pandemic saw all but a handful of events, including all the major ones, cancelled from March 2020. But the Cambridge & Coleridge AC member spent most of the summer unable to run anyway, due to an inflammatory knee issue which eventually led to him having to alter his style to allow him to return.

“I managed to get one race in, in mid-September (in Wimbledon), I did a 3,000m off four weeks training,” he said.

“I did manage to run a PB though in around 8min 13sec but it was nothing to set the world alight. It was quite bad conditions; it was windy and rainy.”

A hastily arranged event, by Bryggn Sports, at Manchester’s Sportcity saw Keen get a 3,000m indoor race in earlier this month to kick off his 2021 campaign, finishing sixth as the only under-23 in the elite field.

Having clocked 8.15.90, in an event won by Mark Pearce in 7.52.36, he said: “We didn’t have much time to prepare and it didn’t really go to plan to be honest, but it was a good experience just to get back and get some racing in.”

Planning for any races with the ongoing Covid-19 situation is proving tough but he is set to head out to New York in the next few weeks for another big moment in his fledgling career.

“They have cancelled the British (Indoor) Championships that was meant to be happening at the end of February,” he said, “but I have just got the go-ahead for a race in New York at the beginning of February, indoors again, so I am really looking forward to that.

“It will be my first race outside of Europe. It is a New Balance-run event for their sponsored athletes.

“I signed a two-year contract with them in February last year and it’s been really good.”