Athletics: First-class runner is quick learner on and off the track

Early on in his first year of studying aeronautical engineering at Caius College, Cambridge, Andy Baddeley had doubts. Stressed out and wondering if he was up to the academic challenge, he contracted a debilitating viral infection.

"My joints swelled up and I had a rash," he recalled. "I even swelled up internally and couldn't eat or drink anything for a week. There was a huge workload in my first year and while I had been one of the more able students at school, I wasn't sure of myself at university."

The freshman hung in there, however, and the following year he began to realise that he had his own strengths. "When I got down to it," he said, "I realised I was as good as anyone else." Better than most, in fact, as he left Cambridge with a double first and a distinction in his Masters degree.

In broad terms, Baddeley's athletics career - which saw him earn a Cambridge Blue - is shaping up in the same way as his academic one. Having endured a succession of physical setbacks, not to mention a fall in last year's Commonwealth Games 1500 metres final in Melbourne which also brought down the home hope Craig Mottram, Baddeley has begun to realise his strengths on the track this season.

The Wirral-born athlete announced his potential to the wider world last Friday by coming third in the Dream Mile in Oslo, knocking almost five seconds off his best time in the process as he clocked 3min 51.95sec.

That performance put him 12th in the all-time British mile rankings, a list that starts with Steve Cram's former world record of 3:46.32 and includes the likes of Seb Coe, Steve Ovett, Peter Elliott, Dave Moorcroft and Jack Buckner.

All the new generation of runners can do is chip away at their own times and aspire to the next level - which in Baddeley's case is represented by a place in this year's 1500m final at the World Championships in Osaka.

The mile lists, admittedly, are less dynamic than most given that this quintessentially British distance is now contested very rarely - the Oslo Dream Mile, and Britain's Emsley Carr Mile are the only regular fixtures left on the circuit.

But even if Baddeley, who was 25 yesterday, is too young to remember some of the Dream Mile heroics of his compatriots, his coach, Andy Hobdell, is there to fill in the blanks.

"There's something magical about the mile, isn't there?' said Hobdell, who is a lawyer based at St Albans Crown Court - these two Andys are smarter than your average pair. "I used to watch Cram, Coe and Ovett in the Dream Mile on television when I was younger. But I think the distance has always been magic, ever since Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile. Even now that's a huge target for a lot of athletes."

Baddeley's sights are set a lot higher nowadays. "I've told Andy that I consider world-class running to be anything below 3.50," Hobdell said. "I definitely know what he can run. There's more to come." Baddeley, who led into the last lap at Oslo, also believes he can run faster, but was pleased with the fact that he stayed in contention throughout.

Comments after the race from Baddeley's agent, Nic Bideau, who also represents and coaches Mottram, suggested that any loitering from the British runner might have obliged him to nip onto the track and administer a swift kick up the backside. As it was, Bideau would have done better to apply the boot to his Australian charge who, weary from competing in California six days earlier, could only finish a sluggish ninth.

"Nic said to me beforehand that he expected me to get into a competitive position," Baddeley said. "I've definitely been guilty in the past of not giving myself a fair chance. Perhaps I've given the other guys too much respect."

Baddeley's increased assurance stems partly from the the eight weeks he spent in Australia after Christmas training at altitude and then working alongside Mottram, the Commonwealth 5000m silver medallist.

"I could see I wasn't far off doing the same as a guy who is one of the best in the world today," he said. "I felt like I was able to contribute to the training as well, which boosted my self-belief."

It will be fascinating to see how the new-look Baddeley fares in Munich on Saturday when he represents Britain in the 1500m at the European Cup. Among his opponents will be the French double European champion, Mehdi Baala.

Historically, the European Cup 1500m is slow and tactical. But despite not being noted for his sprint finish, Baddeley is looking forward to it.

"Last year I might have felt intimidated, but this year I feel I have a right to be on the same track as people like Baala," he said. "It's going to be more difficult than Oslo in some ways, but I'm a lot stronger this year and I'm ready to make sure I get a good position."

The Commonwealth Games fall was by no means the first blip Baddeley had encountered in his running. The viral infection he had in his first year at university, for instance, kept him out of action for a whole season. In 2004 he suffered an alarming experience in training when he began to experience serious heart palpitations.

"My heart was beating very fast, and irregularly," he said. "I was finding it difficult to breathe, and my left arm felt numb. It was all a bit scary."

Eventually, the UK Athletics doctors established that it was a condition that was not life-threatening, but it is something he has had to learn how to manage as it still recurs in a milder form.

Baddeley, who has spent time giving supervisions at Cambridge and latterly in lecturing on sports science at St Mary's College in Twickenham, plans to go full-time this summer, having seen his Lottery funding supplemented by sponsorship.

He was offered the chance to do a PhD at Cambridge but realised that he would not be able to maintain his athletics if he did. It might have been possible for Bannister to reach world-class levels as an athlete and a surgeon, but nowadays it is one or the other, as Curtis Robb, who reached the 800m final at the 1992 Olympics while pursuing his medical studies but found the balancing act increasingly wearing, will readily attest.

So Baddeley's strong interest in aeronautical design is not something he is able to pursue, although his fellow athletes still regard him as something of an expert in all things aeronautical.

"If I'm flying anywhere with other runners and we hit some turbulence, they always look at me and ask 'Is this OK?'" said Baddeley with a chuckle. "Depending on who it is, there are times when I like to exaggerate the risks."

Having come through a fair amount of turbulence in his athletics career, Baddeley's flight path now appears to be on a smooth upward path. Munich awaits - and beyond it, Osaka.

British milestones: How Baddeley follows in a glorious national tradition

Andrew Baddeley's Oslo Dream Mile time of 3min 51.95sec puts him 12th on an all-time British list headed by the 3min 46.32sec - then the world record - set by Steve Cram in the 1985 Dream Mile.

Oslo has been a happy hunting ground for British milers - nine of the top 15 bests were set there - but it is a measure of the challenge facing the latest generation of male middle distance runners that every name above Baddeley's in that list belongs to a retired athlete. Indeed, eight of the 11 best times, including the top five of Cram, Seb Coe (3:47.33), Steve Ovett (3:48.40), Peter Elliott (3.49.20) and Dave Moorcroft (3:49.34), were set in the 1980s.

That dominance was an echo of the first 40 years of recorded mile history when, save for one Irishman, George Farran, who ran 4: 33.0 in 1862, every world record went to a Briton.

By the turn of the century, however, the record was being shared around, although Sydney Wooderson (4:06.04 in 1937) flew the flag before Roger Bannister's historic effort of 1954, 3min 59.4sec, perhaps the most celebrated statistic in the sport. Derek Ibbotson's 3:57.2 in 1957 reclaimed the distinction for Britain. Then, in 1979, Seb Coe took up the running...

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