sammellishphotoA teenager who lost one of his shoes during the European Cross Country Championships decided to “grit down” for his team and continue running.
Michael Clark was representing the Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Lagoa, Portugal, when disaster struck and his shoe came off during the first 100 metres.
Despite the setback the 17-year-old from Norwich battled through the trail course – eventually finishing 18th and helping his team secure a silver medal.
“I was in a lot of pain for most of the race,” said Clark, whose time of 13:39 was the second-fastest 5km (3.1-mile) time in Europe in 2025 and the 12th fastest in the world for an under-18.
Clark’s impressive performance came in the under-20s men’s race on Sunday 14 December.
The teenager said he had been “in a different world of pain”.
“I think someone clipped the back of my heel and my shoe was hanging off for a couple strides, he said.
“That’s when I realised I had to ditch it because it was slowing me down loads.”
sammellishphotoClark said stopping to put his trainer back on would “have done more harm than good”.
“I then would have probably been last place in the field by the time my shoe would have been back on,” he added.
The young runner said his decision to complete the race with just the one trainer left two areas on the bottom of his right foot without skin.
“And it was pretty much like that going into the last lap, so around 2 kilometres,” he said.
sammellishphoto‘Grit down’
His foot has started to heal although he has avoided putting too much pressure on it.
Clark said continuing with the race meant the GB team benefitted as only the top three finishers from each team contributed to their country’s finishing position.
“I realised I was the third runner so needed to pick up as many places as possible to get the best result for our team.
“I just knew I had to just grit down and get it done for GB.”
The British team had initially been placed 4th as Clark’s timing chip was in his discarded shoe.
“When they realized what had happened and they counted my result in, we were really lucky to get second,” added the speedy teenager.