Team GB star Max Burgin apologised during an interview with the BBC moments after qualifying for the Olympics 800m final on Friday. The 22-year-old cemented his place in the showpiece event after crossing the line in third place with a time of 1:43.50m.
Burgin produced a clever performance under pressure in the third 800m semi-final of the day as the Olympics action continued at the Stade de France.
And in a quick race he finished behind Kenyan star Emmanuel Wanyonyi, who crossed the line in first, and USA ace Bryce Hoppel, who finished second.
“I couldn’t be happier,” Burgin explained before momentarily finding himself lost for words. “I don’t know what to say. It’s sort of come out of nowhere.
“My fastest time this year has been 1:45m. I knew I could run faster, but to get through in a PB – and I felt quite good doing it as well – so yeah. I wouldn’t have believed it a month ago.
“I wouldn’t have believed it a few weeks ago to be honest. I really don’t know what to say, sorry. The race plan was [to] go out and follow the front runner, who was very likely to be Wanyonyi, who was in the lane right next to me.
“So it worked out quite well from that point of view – followed him across the first 200, felt quite comfortable following him through the four.
“Bryce came up on my side and boxed me in a bit, but I didn’t panic and worry about it. I held onto the six, thought about making a move, but again no one was coming past.
“Us three, we seemed far up, and also knowing that the first two heats were slow – if we were on for a fast time, it would have been top five in my heat – so I just had to hold my position.”
Burgin was full of energy during the interview and had a beaming smile plastered over his face as the chat came to an end.
And he is set to return to the Stade de France track on Saturday, with the 800m final scheduled to get underway at 6.05pm BST.
While Burgin will have the opportunity to compete for a medal on Saturday, his Team GB team-mate Ben Pattison will be forced to watch from the sidelines.
Pattison finished fourth in the first semi-final and then explained: “I knew straight away that time wouldn’t be good enough. This is the Olympics, 1:45m is not good enough.
“I’m very disappointed – I felt like I didn’t have it in me today, I don’t know why. I’ll have to watch it back, see if I ran wide, see if I did too much work early on. Not my day today. I let myself down but it’s the Olympics, I’m learning. I’ll learn a lot from that race but [I’m] gutted.”
