Toby Harries
Sport: Athletics
Course: 1st Year Biological Sciences BSc
Achievements:
U18 200m Champion 2015
U20 200m Silver Medalist 2015
U18 200m World Championship Finalist 2015
U18 200m Commonwealth Games Silver Medalist 2015
U20 Indoor 200m UK Champion 2016
Indoor 200m UK Men's Champion 2016
U20 200m Silver Medalist 2017
200m UK Men's Finalist (unable to compete due to injury) 2017
U20 200m European Champion 2017
Bio:
I began my professional sporting career training in rugby in the Harlequins Elite Development Programme. After which I was selected for the South of England training camps as a wing and outside centre. This soon became obsolete as I began to take my running more seriously, progressing from completing at English School competitions to being selected for the Great Britain World Youth team in 2015. Soon after I made the decision to drop rugby in attempt to evade injury, and to focus my efforts on the track. In the summer of 2016 I was struck with a grade 4 tendon rupture, which ended with surgery and 10 months of rehab. Multiple lower grade hamstring tears followed on my path back to recovery. In the Summer of 2017, over a year later I returned to track with not yet a fully recovered hamstring, as a last ditch effort to compete in the year's major outdoor competitions and to retain contract with sponsor Nike. I continue to train for the love of my sport, and focus my efforts this winter season to strengthen my hamstring. Socially, I’m not known to turn down a beer or a night out, which can cause me to get in trouble with my coach. I enjoy various different sports, and try to get out to do things, but similarly to everyone else I do find myself binge watching too many episodes of Netflix late at night. I also try to attend boxing club here at UCL when I can, which is great for the fitness aspect of my training.