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Pollution and Pain: What this Canadian endures in pursuit of the fastest 400 metres ever run
Pollution and Pain: What this Canadian endures in pursuit of the fastest 400 metres ever run

CBC

time23-05-2025

  • Sport
  • CBC

Pollution and Pain: What this Canadian endures in pursuit of the fastest 400 metres ever run

Christopher Morales Williams accepts both as the price of success Cole Burston/Canadian Press By Morgan Campbell CBC Sports May 23, 2025 Christopher Morales Williams leads a crew of quarter milers cruising south along the grass infield at the Spec Towns Track, at the southern edge of the University of Georgia's campus in Athens, covering ground with long, springy, rhythmic strides. They cross the line and Morales Williams, the fastest 400-metre runner in Canadian history, double beeps the button on his handheld stopwatch. A hawk circles overhead on postcard-perfect Tuesday – 25 degrees Celsius, bright sun with a few wisps of cirrus cloud. Three more 100-metre runs done, eighteen seconds each. Forty-five seconds until the next set. Ten sets total. 'How many so far?' asks Karim Abdel Wahab, UGA's assistant track coach who guides Morales-Williams' day-to-day training. 'Six,' says Morales Williams, who swept all four major college titles in 2024 – SEC and NCAA champ indoors, then repeated the feat outdoors. 'Okay. Great job, Christopher,' Abdel Wahab says. 'We on 18s?' 'Yep,' 'We better be.' That 18-second tempo is a prescription, not a guideline Running any faster could lead to a buildup of lactate in the runners' muscles. That was the objective the day before, when Morales Williams ran five 90-metre sprints, all out, with 10 seconds between runs. But it's not the goal this day. This group includes Elija Godwin, a UGA alum who has won four global medals on Team USA 4x400 squads, along with all-conference sprinters Shemar Chambers, Xai Ricks and Ervin Pearson. To a fit civilian, 18 seconds is a sprint. To these runners, it feels more like a brisk jog. This day's session is challenging, but not overly difficult. A complement to the previous day's high-intensity runs and the next day's weight training, and a building block workout to help set the foundation for a crucial season in Morales-Wiliams' career. Last year, as a college sophomore, the 20-year-old Morales Williams, a graduate of St. Elizabeth Catholic High School in Thornhill, Ont., racked up accolades with a series of record-setting performances in the 400 metres. In February he ran 44.49 to win a Southeastern Conference indoor title, and set a new world best. Two weeks later he won NCAA gold. Eight weeks after that he eclipsed the Canadian national record outdoors, running 44.05 for another SEC crown, then followed that with another NCAA championship. In June he claimed a senior national title, signed a pro contract with Adidas, and earned his first Olympic berth. By the numbers, Morales Williams is already Canada's best ever at 400 metres, but this year he aims to go two more places no Canadian quarter miler has ever reached: below the 44-second barrier and to the top of a global podium outdoors at September's world championships in Tokyo. Technically, I shouldn't be progressing (this fast), but I could be the first 42 guy. You don't know. I don't know ... I don't feel the limit Morales Williams Making the leap means continuing to master all the elements that make a great 400-metre runner. Not just speed, endurance and pace judgement, but factors affecting them, like track math, biochemistry and psychology. He'll tackle those challenges while managing a full course load as an ecology major at Georgia, and navigating the transition from surprise NCAA star to rookie pro with high expectations. It could be a steep climb, especially considering that, after last year's massive leap forward, future improvements figure to come in smaller increments. Morales Williams is scheduled to make his Diamond League debut Sunday in Rabat, Morocco, where he will run the 400 metres in a field that includes Olympic gold medalist Quincy Hall, and current world leader Jacory Patterson. On the precipice of his first professional outdoor season, Morales Williams hasn't accepted that his trajectory is set to flatten out. If Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone can shatter glass ceilings in the women's 400 hurdles, why, Morales Williams asks, can't he do it in his event. The clock ticks toward the next run. As a rest period, the time passes in a flash. But to a world-class quarter miler, 45 seconds is more than a full day's work. Careers can change in less time than that. 'I'm not going to start running 41, but you also don't know,' he says later. 'Technically, I shouldn't be progressing (this fast), but I could be the first 42 guy. You don't know. I don't know. Nobody knows. But there's no point in undermining. I don't feel the limit yet.' ♦ ♦ ♦ Morales Williams doesn't really have time for this post-practice interview. He still has to walk back to his off-campus apartment, cook dinner (tonight's entrée: homemade gnocchi), and then hop online to play video games with friends back in suburban Toronto. Then there's school work. It piled up during a recent trip to Nanjing, China, where Morales Williams finished fifth in the 400-metre final at the indoor world championships. Back in Athens he'll scramble to catch up. After practice. And video games. And quality time with his girlfriend, Aaliyah Butler, a U.S. Olympian, and star 400-metre runner at UGA. Right now, though, he's lounging on a couch outside the track team's locker room, explaining his three-step strategy for clearing the academic backlog. Procrastinate. Put it off some more. Complete all his tasks, inspired by deadline pressure. 'Magically, everything gets done,' he says. 'Everything just comes to me, and I start working so efficiently. I'm a student-athlete. I know how to be efficient with my time.' Science says he has a point. In a TED Talk that's been viewed nearly 23 million times on TED's website alone, organizational psychologist Adam Grant reframes procrastination as a reliable problem-solving technique masquerading as laziness. 'Procrastination gives you more time to consider divergent ideas, to think in non-linear ways,' said Grant, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. 'The task is still active in the back of your mind.' Morales-Williams used to approach the 400 metres the same way. Slow start, frantic finish. If you're aiming to avoid the late-race flameout that often follows a hot early pace, waiting as long as possible to shift gears is a solid strategy. That template powered Morales-Williams to four provincial high school titles; he pulled a 200-400 double as a ninth grader in 2019, and again 2022. Those results prompted Tony Sharpe, who coached Morales-Williams at the Speed Academy track club in Toronto, to recommend him to Caryl Smith Gilbert, the head coach at Georgia. Smith Gilbert acknowledges that Morales-Williams doesn't look like he can generate world-class sprinter's horsepower. At 5-foot-10, with a weight in the low 140s, he could pass for a middle-distance runner. But she also says that Sharpe only calls her about prospects that can blossom into college standouts, so she listened. 'The last thing he told me was Andre De Grasse and Kyra Constantine,' she says, referring to two of Sharpe's pupils who became stars while running for her at USC. 'He ain't let me down yet.' Morales-Williams learned quickly that his high-school strategy wouldn't serve him in the SEC, where the top 400-metre runners are future Olympians with speed and staying power. He preferred to cruise through the first 200 metres in 22.7 seconds, and learned he couldn't reel in runners who ran the first half lap closer 21-flat. Late-race fatigue sets in no matter how slowly you start, and the clock doesn't wait for anyone. To reach his potential he needed a new race model. That's partly a track math problem. Everyday arithmetic might suggest doubling an athlete's 200-metre personal best to arrive at a projected 400-metre time, but none of the 112 men who have broken 20 seconds in the 200 metres have run a sub 40-second 400. The world record belongs to Wayde Van Niekerk of South Africa, who ran 43.03 at the Rio Olympics in 2016. His 200-metre personal best: 19.84 seconds. Track math says an athlete's 400-metre time should equal two times their 200-metre personal best, plus somewhere between three or four seconds, depending on the formula you're using. Those equations explain Van Niekerk's 43.03, but can't account for Morales Williams, who has run 44.05, but whose 200-metre personal best (20.93 seconds) suggests he should max out closer to 45 seconds. But those equations deal with averages, and don't fully factor in individual quirks, like Morales Williams' next-level speed endurance. Or they might assume a fairly conservative opening 200 metres, where Abdel Wahab aims for the opposite – an aggressive, yet sensible pace that can defy statistical models and push Morales Williams below 44 seconds. 'Our system can allow you to come really close to your open 200 in the first half of a 400, and not crash in the second half,' says Abdel Wahab, adding that Morales Williams should target a 21-second opening split. 'That's a responsible number. That will not crash him. We believe in proper energy distribution.' From a quantitative standpoint, Abdel Wahab says it's straightforward. Improving Morales Williams' performance in a flying 30 metres – the gold standard for measuring a sprinter's maximum velocity – will strengthen his 200 metres, which in turn will improve his 400. Smith Gilbert says it's also a matter of imprinting a faster opening 200 on Morales Williams' muscle memory. So she'll have him run 100-metre sprints, from starting blocks, around the first turn, aiming to complete each rep in 11 seconds. She'll pair those with 100-metre runs down the back stretch, with a running start and a target time of 10-seconds. 'Do you feel that? It's not 22.7,' says Smith Gilbert, who took over as UGA's head coach in June of 2021. 'You gotta put him through it, and then he'll feel it.' The 2024 Southeastern Conference indoor final, two hard-charging laps of a 200-metre track, is a case in point. As the broadcast camera zooms in on Morales Williams, analyst Dan O'Brien summarizes his pre-race conversation with Smith Gilbert, and their shared conclusion that a runner can win, or lose, a 400-metre race in the opening half. 'If you don't push in the first lap, you just don't have a chance,' O'Brien 150 metres, JeVaughn Powell of the University of Florida, one lane inside Morales Williams, appeared to have gained a slight lead. But then Morales Williams hit the afterburners. A stunning 50-metre burst gave him the lead at 200, with the inside track and a clear path for lap two. Holding that position was a question of speed endurance, which, for Morales Williams, is never a question at all. Powell and the rest could only watch the gap between them and first place grow. Morales Williams crossed the line in 44.49 seconds, the fastest indoor 400 metres in history. The mark was never ratified as a world record because the starting blocks at the meet didn't comply with World Athletics' specifications, but the result vindicates his speed-first strategy. His time at 200 metres: 21.09 seconds. 'They're trying to get my confidence up. I've gotta be able to find it in me,' Morales Williams says. 'I've gotta believe I can run that fast in the first 200 and still go. But it's scary.' ♦ ♦ ♦ Fifteen seconds into his recovery period, Morales Williams gives the first hint that this day's workout is wearing on him. He peels off his pastel-green Adidas t-shirt to reveal his torso and tattoos – three dragons on his right arm, and five Olympic rings on his left pectoral, over his heart. Last August, Morales Williams finished eighth in his Olympic semi, and didn't qualify for the final. This summer he's targeting a podium finish at the world championships in Tokyo. If breaking the 44-second barrier and winning a global medal are matters of horsepower, they're also functions of fuel efficiency. Midway through this session, Morales Williams breathes heavily, but his muscles aren't on fire. At 18 seconds per 100 metres, they're not supposed to be. We used to blame that deep-seated muscle burn on lactic acid, but now know it comes from a buildup of acidic hydrogen ions during strenuous exercise. The lactate forms when pyruvate, another exercise byproduct, binds to those hydrogen ions, raising PH levels in the muscle cell. Your body can burn lactate for quick energy, or convert it to glucose for later use. The point is lactate is a scapegoat. It's present in burning muscles because it forms when pyruvate arrives to put out the fire. But hydrogen ions are the culprit. It's a basic metabolic process, but in the context of sport, complications arise when ions build up more quickly than you can buffer them into lactate, or lactate accumulates faster than you can burn it for energy. Proficiency at turning hydrogen ions into lactate, and lactate into energy, is a job requirement for aspiring world medallists. The main plot twist? It's predictable. You hit the wall. Proficiency at turning hydrogen ions into lactate, and lactate into energy, is an advantage at lower levels of 400-metre running, and a job requirement for aspiring world medalists. Some athletes are gifted with that ability; all serious quarter milers need to train it. Hence this day's workout, designed to create lactate at the same rate the athletes can burn it off, but no faster. Cross that line and you're training a different energy system. Today's aim, Abdel Wahab says, is to bump up against the runners' lactate threshold without surpassing it. Over time their bodies adapt, raising their lactate threshold and lifting the ceiling on their performance. By world-class sprinter standards it's a light day, because the session isn't intense enough to cause lactate buildup, or stress the athletes' central nervous systems. But a look at Morales Williams and his peers, pacing, breathing deep, sweating, mindful of the time between runs, makes it plain. It's still work. ♦ ♦ ♦ 'Did you try wiping it?' Morales-Williams asks Kelsie Murrell-Ross, a UGA senior and all-conference shot putter, as they stare at the fingerprint scanner controlling the door that has them locked out of the weight room, and Monday's workout. 'Let me try,' Murrell-Ross says, running her t-shirt across the small screen. She applies her index finger. Nothing. It's a high-tech security setup befitting a college athletic program with a $192.7 million annual budget. But Morales-Williams suspects that afternoon's thunderstorms, plus the lingering humidity, have the system acting finicky. 'Let me try,' he says. He rubs the bottom of his t-shirt across the scanner's eye, then touches the square. Click. Murrell-Ross cracks a wide smile, relieved she'll make her weight session on time, and incredulous that she needed a former teammate to get her into the building. 'No fair,' she says. 'You don't even go here!' Technically, he still does. Morales-Williams is still enrolled at the university. He's no longer on scholarship, but the athletic department will cover his costs – tuition and fees for out-of-state students run $28,616 US this academic year – until he graduates. So he's still, in a strict sense, a student-athlete. After last spring's run of school and national records, turning pro was a natural next step. The market for NIL deals, the sponsorships that have enriched star football and basketball players, was tepid. But shoe companies wanted him, and last June Morales Williams signed with Adidas. He opted to remain at Georgia and keep training with Abdel Wahab and Smith Gilbert, and he adjusted his goals upward, from an NCAA title to a world championship medal. Morales Wiliams enters the 2025 outdoor season with that 44.05-second personal best, but thinks he can lower it to 43.3. 'It's a pretty fast time, but I feel like I can do it,' he says. 'I just want to leave a big mark on the pro stage.' Morales Williams has swapped apparel brands – UGA is sponsored by Nike – but still lives like he did when he competed for the school. He rode his electric scooter around campus until the battery expired for good. Now he and Butler share a pair of wheels. And most afternoons you can find him at the athletic complex, practising with the varsity track team. The biggest difference this year? A lot less racing. Through mid May, Morales Williams had only competed outdoors twice, recording a wind-aided 21.34 in the 200 at Florida Relays on April 4, and running a leg on Canada's 4x400 team the next day. In contrast, UGA's current top men's 400-metre runner, a U.S.-Canadian dual citizen named Will Floyd, had run 12 races through May 17, including a fourth-place finish in the SEC final, and an SEC championship in the 4x400 relay. Fewer trials. Less room for error. 'What you learn as a professional is that you have to train with meet intensity every day,' Smith Gilbert says. 'They're paying you to do exactly what you've been training. That's a tough thing for a 20-year-old. You just gotta do it, but it takes time.' ♦ ♦ ♦ Morales Williams rounded the final bend at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., and hit the home straightaway with nothing in front of him but the finish line and two faster starters – Johnnie Blockburger of USC, and Texas A&M's Auhmad Robinson. Like a true procrastinator, he had left the hardest work until that last possible moment, and now needed a superhuman effort to salvage an NCAA outdoor title. He strode past Blockburger with 80 metres remaining, closing on Robinson and a national championship. Morales Williams appeared to reach a new level of speed as he turned back challenges from Alabama's Samuel Ogazi, as well as Powell, his old rival from Florida, while reeling in Robinson. But it was an optical illusion. Everyone decelerates in the final phases of a 400-metre sprint. Morales Williams, on his best days, slows down the least, and so he gains ground. He took the lead at 385 metres and crossed the line first, in 44.47 seconds. The win secured his second national title of the year, and marked a resounding victory over every 400-metre runner's two most stubborn opponents. Pollution and pain. The pollution hits at a cellular level, thanks to those acidic hydrogen ions. When they proliferate, you'll suffer. So will your performance. Even if you're a world-class athlete. Run far enough, fast enough, your blood PH drops. Do it for nearly 45 seconds and your muscles will fill up with hydrogen ions and lactate, but feel like they're made of lava. You can mitigate the effects, which explains the popularity of sodium bicarbonate supplements among endurance athletes. Studies suggest neutralizing acidic ions with an alkaline substance like baking soda can boost performance. Sport nutrition companies are aggressively marketing bicarbonate products, and Abdel Wahab reminds his runners to use them. And you can train your body to buffer those ions more efficiently, like Morales Williams did during one of his workouts. The later in the race the pollution builds up, the less distance you have to run with leaden muscles. But no 400-metre sprinter can avoid hydrogen ions, and the lactate that follows. They can only manage and endure. Without an immediate post-race muscle biopsy, it's impossible to know exactly what's happening inside Morales Williams' muscles as he outlasts other runners down the stretch, but his coaches say his strong finishes hint at what sets him apart. The ability to clear out metabolic waste on the fly. 'You've got to be able to train yourself to go further than the next person before you get lactate. Then when you get lactate, you've gotta be able to tolerate it,' Smith Gilbert says. 'He can take it and then run through it, because it comes whether you run slow or fast through 200.' As for the pain? It's in the limbs, but also the brain. Just about anyone who has ever run a fast 400 can tell you it burns. 'You know at the end it's going to hurt,' said Canadian sprinter Aaron Brown after running a 400 in 2022. 'I certainly had my moments of doubt if I wanted to go through (the) pain.' The quote from another runner is necessary here, because Morales-Williams says he can't relate. Fatigue? He feels that. Sometimes in a race with a fast pace. Usually between 200 and 280 metres. Far from the start but a long way from the finish. But late in the final bend, he says, he feels re-energized because the final 120 metres belong to him. Rounding the corner into the final straightway, he can glimpse the finish line, knowing he's one of the best closers in the sport. 'That last 100 I'm more tired, but I have that extra gear that I've been saving,' he says. The final 75 metres should hurt, but Morales Williams treats pain like he does his school assignments. Rather than confront it in the moment, he puts it off so he can deal with it at a more convenient time. Post-race, ideally. And so Morales Williams suspects his coaches have it wrong. They think he tolerates pain extraordinarily well. He says he doesn't have to tolerate pain at all, because he doesn't acknowledge it until after he crosses the finish line. 'What I used to tell myself as a kid is, 'pain doesn't exist,'' he says. 'Technically, you could go all out in a 400 if you didn't feel pain. What's gonna stop you?' ♦ ♦ ♦ The runners head toward the departure point as their recovery period expires. Resting any longer than 45 seconds would defeat the workout's purpose. They lean forward and crouch over the start line. Four runners watch Morales Williams, who keeps his eye on the stopwatch. He's scheduled to open his outdoor season two days after this session. Later this year he hopes to make more history – break his own records, win a medal at September's worlds. But before that he has to run the length of this infield three times. Then three more times. Then three more Then three more. Each run in 18 seconds, and not a hair faster. Morales Williams beeps the start-stop button at precisely 45 seconds and the runners take off, loping along the grass, headed northeast toward lofty goals, shrinking in the distance. About the Author Footer Links My Account Profile CBC Gem Newsletters Connect with CBC Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Mobile RSS Podcasts Contact CBC Submit Feedback Help Centre Audience Relations, CBC P.O. Box 500 Station A Toronto, ON Canada, M5W 1E6 Toll-free (Canada only): 1-866-306-4636 TTY/Teletype writer: 1-866-220-6045 About CBC Corporate Info Sitemap Reuse & Permission Terms of Use Privacy Jobs Our Unions Independent Producers Political Ads Registry AdChoices Services Ombudsman Public Appearances Commercial Services CBC Shop Doing Business with Us Renting Facilities Accessibility It is a priority for CBC to create a website that is accessible to all Canadians including people with visual, hearing, motor and cognitive challenges. Closed Captioning and Described Video is available for many CBC shows offered on CBC Gem. About CBC Accessibility Accessibility Feedback © 2025 CBC/Radio-Canada. All rights reserved. Visitez

Hong Kong perfect base for Team GB athletes as they embark on World Championships quest
Hong Kong perfect base for Team GB athletes as they embark on World Championships quest

South China Morning Post

time08-05-2025

  • Sport
  • South China Morning Post

Hong Kong perfect base for Team GB athletes as they embark on World Championships quest

Team GB Olympic medallist Toby Harries has said that Hong Kong provided the perfect setting to prepare for this weekend's World Athletics Relays in Guangzhou. Advertisement Harries is embarking on the second phase of his career, having switched last year to running the 400 metres after considering quitting because he felt 'down and out' after a period of stagnation in the 200m. He documented his bid to qualify for Great Britain's 2024 Olympics 4x400m men's team for more than 20,000 social media followers, who saw Harries' mission end with a hard-earned bronze medal. 'I'd been working for 10 years with nothing to show for it,' said Harries, who had overcome tearing his hamstring off the bone, as well as about 20 other tears, at the outset of his career. 'If I was going to fail aiming for the biggest event in the world, I wanted to show people you should never give up.' Toby Harries said he 'would be England level now' had he stuck to rugby. Photo: British Athletics He went to Paris following injury and illness, and, while the mixed-relay event was happening, Harries was in the warm-up area 'doing my own Olympic final' for the men's quartet.

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