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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Alex Spink

Max Burgin gets Keely Hodgkinson backing after following Seb Coe training plan

Max Burgin is banking on the coaching manual that turned Seb Coe into a world beater doing the same for him.

Like Coe, he hails from Yorkshire and is trained by his dad. At just 20 he is the fastest in the world this year over 800 metres.

So far he might be best known for his fearless front running and unusual habit of projectile vomiting after his races. But according to pal and 800m Olympic silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson he has the class to follow Laura Muir's 1500m bronze medal with Britain’s first gold.

“If Max is healthy and he gets through the rounds okay I think he will walk away as world champion,” she said. “This is a bold statement but who’s going to catch him? I feel he’s got this aura around him that people are just scared of him.”

That is asking a lot of an athlete in his first senior championships, facing with three races in four days.

But Burgin is already fourth fastest 800m Brit of all time behind Coe, Steve Cram and Peter Elliott.

And he has done the hard yards on the hills of Yorkshire - just like a young Coe did to build his speed and power en route to winning back-to-back Olympic titles in the 1980s.

Seb Coe beats Steve Ovett to 1500m gold at the 1980 Moscow Olympics (Getty)

“A lot of dad’s influences have been from my granddad and from reading the coaching books of Peter Coe,” said the Halifax starlet.

“Hills are a big part of my training programme so it’s very useful being in Halifax as we’ve got some monster hills.”

“Going into the championships as the world lead, gives you amazing confidence. You know that you are faster than anyone going in. No-one else has shown they can run as fast as me yet.”

His gun to tape British title win evoked memories of David Rudisha's world record-breaking run at London 2012.

Comparisons are premature but Burgin admits that race is "everything that I look to for inspiration for running".

Asked if he is the Yorkshire Rudisha, he laughed and said: "That would be nice."

Holly Bradshaw is in a race against time to make the Commonwealth Games due to the hamstring she damaged when her pole snapped.

The Olympic bronze medallist said the “significant” injury, caused by the awkward landing, requires further investigation back in the UK and conceded that getting to the start line in Birmingham in two weeks would be “not a small task”.

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