Wild Running: Trail Running and SwimRun Adventures · @IAmTheHow

From Wild Child to World Champion: David Sharpe, Enigma on the Track

·1 hr 15 min·5 clips

Host Kerry interviews author Brian Garner and subject David Sharpe about the biography 'Wild Child to World Champion: Enigma on the Track', exploring Sharpe's remarkable rise from a hyperactive kid in Jarrow to World Junior Champion and European medallist in the 800m. The conversation digs deep into Sharpe's likely undiagnosed ADHD, his unconventional approach to training and racing tactics, and how his freewheeling personality both limited and enriched his athletic career. Sharpe reflects candidly on missing two Olympics, his 1:43 PB, beating the Olympic champion in Cuba, and why he has no regrets about living life on his own terms.

As heard by us

A frank athletics portrait that tracks a rapid rise, a mentor figure, and the wider forces around both.

The piece follows David Sharpe from teenage club runner to World Junior champion with a clear sense of pace, and it gives the book on his life enough room to matter.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Press play for a frank portrait of a runner who broke through young and kept a hard-to-pin-down edge.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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