By 
HARVEY King and Lisburn AC’s Freddie Wallace made an impressive 100 metres debut together at the 17th Dubai International Open last week.
King, who guided Wallace during the T12 Men’s 100m in Dubai, helped the Lisburn AC runner to a massive PB of 11.86 seconds, which has put them on the brink of qualification for this summer’s Commonwealth Games.
What makes that particular achievement all the more impressive is that their best time of the event came with just the two of them on track after the organisers allowed them to re-run their race after a fault with Harvey’s blocks
“It’s unbelievable. To be able to do that in a race when we were both in our won lanes,” Harvey said. ”We had a bit of a handling in the first race with a technical fault with my blocks and they didn’t call the race back.
“It went to an appeal after that and we managed to get a re-run. With just the two of us on track, it was definitely tricky but there was a lot of adrenaline and a lot of anger from the first race!”
The Omagh man only recently teamed up with Wallace after his coach at Strabane Athletic Club, Trev McGlynn, spotted an ad on Facebook and encouraged his protégé to make contact.
“It was an ad Trev had seen on the Athletics NI Facebook page and at the Northern Ireland champs, Freddie long-jumps too, so we were in the same kind of event that day and Trev had mentioned afterwards and suggested I go over and speak to him and we took it from there,” Harvey explained.
“We tried out a couple of sessions and size wise it matched up and I have to be able to run faster than him so that worked out well too and we picked it up quite quickly. It clicked quite well.
“It was a really good fit and it’s been only up since we started.”
Since then, they have taken massive steps forward, overcoming a disqualification early in their relationship before shining in the United Arab Emirate last week.
“We had a couple of 60 metre competitions a few weeks before we went to Dubai to get a wee feel for it,” Harvey added. “It allowed us to get a few of the mistakes out of the way. I actually got him disqualified in the second race we did together because I crossed the line ahead of him.
“It’s tricky coming from individual sprints when you’re going all-out and you’re really trying to get to the line, to essentially doing the opposite.”
Having now gotten to grips with the different approach to finishing s sprint race as a guide runner, Harvey admits that he thoroughly enjoys the discipline and he’s hoping to help Wallace qualify for this summer’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
“[The time in Dubai] put is within the top eight for the Commonwealth Games, so at the minute we’re on the border of qualifying,” Harvey beamed. “It’s his biggest goal at the moment, to qualify for the Commonwealth Games, so it’s my job to get him there.
“The qualifying window closes in March so we’re trying to get as much in as possible before then. We’re in London in three weeks time when we’re hoping for 11.5 or 11.6-ish, which should put us well inside the qualifying window.
“It’s definitely achievable and it definitely became a lot closer to reality in Dubai. It was definitely a worthwhile trip.”
As well as qualifying for the Commonwealth Games with Freddie, Harvey’s other goals this year include aiming for Northern Ireland titles in the 100 metres and long jump.
