Chemistry PhD Student competing in UK Championships
A PhD Student in the Department of Chemistry at the University of York, Harry Maslen, is competing in the heptathlon at the UK Indoor Championships this weekend.
As well as being a chemist, having graduated with a Masters in Green Chemistry at York and now working towards his PhD in Green Chemistry’s Clean Synthesis research group with Dr Tom Farmer, Harry Maslen is also a competitive athlete, and will be heading to Birmingham to compete in the UK Indoor Championships this weekend.
“I've been doing athletics for about 14 years now - I was just a hurdler when I started but I did the other events for fun and it slowly evolved into doing the combined events. The ten-event decathlon is the main event (outdoors), but in the winter/indoor season I do the seven-event heptathlon. My favourite events are probably hurdles and long jump.”
Harry is no stranger to competition at this level. He has previously competed in the American Collegiate national Championships during his undergraduate degree at Angelo State University, Texas and at the English Championships. In 2019 he also represented Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the decathlon at the World University Games in Napoli. This weekend will be his first time at the British Indoor Championships.
“Time management is pretty crucial to balancing the research and training, and some athletics coaching I do with City of York AC, but truthfully I couldn't do it if I didn't enjoy doing all of it - I have been thoroughly enjoying working on my project so far, and the Clean Synthesis group is a fantastic group to be working amongst. Training for ten events makes for a busy schedule, but I couldn't do it without a lot of support from those around me, and without having fun when I train for each event.”
The UK Indoor Championships will be televised by the BBC (BBC Sport - Athletics, 2022, UK Indoor Championships: Day 1, Morning) The timetable for the heptathlon as follows:
Saturday 26 February
10:00 - 60m
11:10 - Long jump
12:40 - Shot put
14:34 - High jump
Sunday 27 February
10:45 - 60m Hurdles
11:50 - Pole vault
14:23 - 1000m
Update: Congratulations to Harry who placed 5th overall in the hetpathlon.