Woodford Green AC with Essex Ladies

PBs

Matt only began his running journey at the age of 21 after meeting Bud Baldaro, then GB Cross Country Team Manager, at Birmingham University in 1996. At the time he was running the odd half marathon 'just for fun', though soon switched to middle distance and by the summer of '97 was regularly racing on the track.

A chance meeting with subsequent Wales teammate Matt Davies, before Matt S won the first of 9 Welsh titles in June 1998, led to a move to join Woodford Green and be part of the yo-yoing between Divisions 1 and 2 of the British League.

Despite amassing a BAL points haul second only to Ayo Falola amongst green n' white hooped track athletes, Matt only broke into the top handful of GB runners in 2002.

The first of two AAAs indoor bronzes over 1500m came in February, before a warm weather training trip to South Africa produced an 800m PB of 1:46.72 in the Engen Grand Prix Final on a balmy night in Cape Town. This performance qualified Matt for the Commonwealth Games that year where he reached the semis of both 800m and 1500m in Manchester.

Sporadic highlights over the next three seasons included taking the CAU Inter Counties Mile title in 2003, finishing 2nd in the 2004 Indoor Europa Cup (the 3rd of three GB vests), then finally achieving a lifelong ambition of being the first Woodfordian to break the 4 minute mile at Crystal Palace in 2005, in the process officially becoming the 999th man in the world to do so since Sir Roger Bannister 51 years earlier.