Team GB race walker Callum Wilkinson hoping to secure place at second Olympic Games after fighting back from lengthy injury lay-off

Callum Wilkinson’s CV makes for impressive reading.

A world under-20 champion in 2016 and a European under-23 bronze medalist three years later, the Moulton-raised racer walker has gone on to win multiple national titles alongside representing his country at the Commonwealth Games and the World Athletics Championships.

And most notable of all, back in 2021 Wilkinson finished 10th in a Team GB vest at the Olympics Games in Tokyo.

Yet, were the 27-year-old to secure himself a place at a second Olympics in Paris later this summer, it could well rank number one on his list of greatest achievements.

After all, from February 2023 until April of this year, the former Moulton Primary School pupil endured some tough times.

Shortly after his victory at the UK Athletics Indoor Championships, Wilkinson was stopped in his tracks by troubling pain between the shin and ankle. Appointments with specialists, scans and a series of pain-killing injections followed, but the soreness persisted.

It was eventually decided in August last year that he would undergo surgery – with no guarantee that it would allow him to reach his previous levels of performance.

The operation – thankfully – was a success, but just when Wilkinson was closing in on a return to competition in early January, he suffered a pulled calf at a training camp.

It was another severe test of mental resolve, but Wilkinson picked himself up off the canvas once again, knuckled down with his rehabilitation and is now in such good shape that he set a new 20k personal best time of 1hr 20mins 27secs in La Coruna, Spain, a fortnight ago.

It rubber stamped Wilkinson’s place in the British team for this weekend’s European Athletics Championships in Rome, and also has him believing that making up the 17 seconds he requires to secure the Olympic qualifying standard is within reach.

Asked if becoming a double Olympian would be his finest moment to date, Wilkinson, who also attended King Edward VI School in Bury St Edmunds, replied: “It might well be number one, or at the very least second behind winning the World Junior Championship or finishing 10th at the Olympics. That’s because of the circumstances and the background to it. It’s actually a bit emotional when I think about those 14 months.

“To go to one Olympic Games is a childhood dream and it would have been so easy to stop after that and move on to something else.

“In the three years since Tokyo I’ve sometimes thought that it might be the right thing to move on – and especially while I’ve been injured.

“When you’re sat in a surgeon’s office and he looks you in the eye, telling you he can’t guarantee you’ll be able to return to competitive sport after surgery, it’s tough.

“You’re consistently wondering whether you’ll get back – and if you do, will I be as good as I was before?

“That’s the thing with athletics, it moves very quickly and you can fall behind. I was lucky enough to speak to Jake Wightman and he said he went from being a world champion to not even featuring on posters for events after he got injured.

“But what I did in Spain showed that I’m actually in the best shape I’ve ever been in when you look at the overall result.

“A lot will determine whether I can make the time, but to qualify again for the biggest race, that would mean more than I can put into words.”

By Wilkinson’s own admission, booking his Olympic ticket this weekend would be the perfect scenario. It would provide him with an extra few weeks of preparation, yet regardless of what unfolds in the Italian capital, he will have another shot, at the national championships later this month.

In that sense the pressure will not be as intense as La Coruna.

“There was huge pressure in Spain,” he added. “It was my last chance to qualify for the Europeans, probably my last chance for the Olympics and the last chance to keep the funding I’ve received since 2017.

“Of course I’ll put pressure on myself in Rome, but it feels like before that I kept going into races chasing times but I want to enjoy this one. The Olympics is on the line, but I need to remember I’m trying to cram all this into something like five weeks after 14 months out.

“I’d love to get it done, but we’ll see how it goes. It will be hot, even though we start at 6pm, so that could make it a slow race.

“One thing I am looking forward to is finishing inside the Olympic Stadium. In all my other championships I’ve never finished with a crowd in a stadium - as a kid I always used to think that looked cool.”