Sprinter from Harvard Places Fourth at U.K. Nationals

Rising Harvard junior Chris Lambert from the United Kingdom has become the school’s third athlete to meet a World ‘A’ qualifying standard this year after running a 100-meter dash in a personal-best 10.24 seconds on July 14 to place fourth at the Norwich Union World Outdoor Trials and AAA Championships.

Although Lambert achieved the qualifying standard, he did not earn one of the three spots on the British National Team for the World Championships. The top two finishers at the national championship meet automatically qualified for the Worlds Championships, and Lambert was not named to the team’s third spot, which was chosen at-large among the qualifiers.

Lambert’s performance did, however, guarantee him a spot on the British team for the World University Games, which will take place from Aug. 22 to Sept. 1 in Beijing.

Brenda Taylor ’01 and senior Dora Gyorffy have earned spots on their respective national teams and are eligible to compete in the World University Games. Taylor placed third in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles at the U.S. Nationals in late June, while Gyorffy is the top-ranked high jumper in Hungary.

Lambert did not compete in any major intercollegiate meets for Harvard during his first two undergraduate years. He came to Harvard originally intending to run track but has yet to compete due to his disagreements with the Harvard coaching staff.

Lambert believes his preferred way of training is best for his performance beyond the Harvard track season, which ends in June.

“I’ve got a longer season to think about,” Lambert said. “For me, it’s a question of what other sprinters are doing. It’s just a question of coaching techniques.”

Lambert’s personal best times in the 100 and 200-meter dash are significantly faster than the winning times this past season at Outdoor Heptagonals, the championship meet of the Ivy schools. No Harvard sprinter placed in the finals of either event at Outdoor Heps this season.

Lambert runs for the Belgrave Harriers, a British club which also lists rising sophomore Alasdair McLean-Foreman among its members. McLean-Foreman—the men’s team’s most decorated freshman this past year—was the Indoor Heps champion in the 800-meter run.

Even though Lambert has been distant from Harvard track thus far, he is still under the impression that reconciliation is possible. But Lambert cannot train under a private coach of his personal choice during the school year if he expects to run collegiate track.

“He’s a nice enough fellow,” said Harvard Coach Frank Haggerty ’68. “But we try to be a little more than caretakers here.”

Taylor and Gyorffy have each managed to succeed at both the collegiate level and the international level despite the extended season, under the tutelage of Associate Head Coach Walter Johnson ’71 and Paul Turner, respectively. Taylor earned several Heptagonal titles and an NCAA title during the college season preceding her personal best time during the summer. Gyorffy won four Heptagonal titles and an NCAA title during the school year and has since placed highly in several international competitions.

Taylor and Gyorffy have each been active in recent competition. Gyorffy placed sixth in an IAAF Golden League meet in Monaco last Friday with a 1.95-meter height—her best of the summer—and then jumped 1.89 meters to place fourth at a Grand Prix meet in London two days later. Taylor most recently placed seventh at a Grand Prix meet in Stockholm with a time of 57.95 seconds, well off of her personal best of 55.46 seconds, which she ran in Zagreb on July 2.

The World Championships will begin in Edmonton one week from today.