Pale skin, wiry frame and Clark Kent spectacles – Bronson Hearn-Smith does not resemble your average sprinter. In fact, he would look more at home in a science lesson than on an athletics track. But Hearn-Smith has traded biology for biomechanics, running 10.65 seconds in the 100m and 21.40 seconds in the 200m aged just 15.
Over the past two months the Colchester teenager has become a viral sensation. On 4 July Hearn-Smith uploaded a video of his 100m race at a local schools championship to Instagram. He won, obviously. But it was the way he ran that caught people’s attention.
Draped in bright yellow in the fourth lane, Hearn-Smith bounded down the track like a gazelle, seemingly putting in little effort to glide past the finish line in 10.68sec. “Did someone force him to race[sic], he looks uninterested, but did it effortlessly,” wrote one commenter.
His long strides, controlled form and lack of reaction at the end gave the illusion, at least to the untrained eye, that he calmly jogged to victory. People couldn’t quite believe he was running so quickly, so slowly.
Hearn-Smith’s perceived nonchalance has helped the video gain more than 3.4m views on his Instagram account, 1.5m on TikTok, and millions more across social media accounts reposting his video.
It has been a whirlwind few weeks when we meet at Colchester Harriers for his Tuesday session. Standing 6ft 2in, he strides over, shakes my outstretched hand and a nervous yet excited smile forms. Accompanied by his family and his girlfriend, it is a reminder of just how young he is.
His father, David, explains that we need to conduct the interview towards the side of the track, away from the other children. We also need to wrap the interview up before training starts and more importantly, before Bronson’s coach arrives.
GB athletes Dan and Jessica Putman have visited the track to train with Bronson and of course capture some content alongside the internet sensation. Hearn-Smith has become an attraction, with plenty of athletes keen to run with him, including the Leyton Orient winger Demetri Mitchell. The footballer called out Hearn-Smith on social media, challenging him to a race.
But the teen is determined not to let the social media attention distract him. He says: “I’ve got my head down and carry on training like nothing happened. I want to keep my feet on the ground.”
His coach is equally determined to ensure training still runs smoothly, without any disruptions, and that the rest of the athletes are protected, without the danger of online abuse.
If there is any sense that Hearn-Smith is growing too big for the club he’s quick to dismiss it and insists that things haven’t always been this way:
“I first started sprinting at 11.” And what times was he running then? “Oh let’s not go there,” he says, laughing. “I only realised I was good last year. I ran 10.9 [in the 100m] and that was second in the UK for my age.”
Hearn-Smith powers down the track in training. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
Fellow 15-year-old Divine Iheme ran the fastest, clocking a staggering 10.3sec last year, a world record for a 14-year-old. With the Australian sprinter Gout Gout a couple of years older and a few 10ths of a second faster than the British pair, it seems sprinting is having a moment in the juniors while the men jostle for position in the seniors.
“It’s called trackflation, mate,” says Hearn-Smith. Armchair pundits are using the new wave of sprinters as an opportunity to manufacture an early rivalry between Iheme and Hearn-Smith. Iheme beat Hearn-Smith in a race for the English Schools Athletics Association earlier this year.
Hearn-Smith acknowledges that healthy competition could be beneficial for his growth but sees any serious, personal rivalry as a step too far. “I love Divine. We’re good friends,” he says. Instead of worrying about the rest of the field, the focus is on improving his own performance.
He says his unique running style developed naturally by way of his long limbs, inspiration from Asafa Powell and a few A and B skip drills and jump squats.
Hearn-Smith’s early training, like many his age, was amateurish. His father says he used to type into ChatGPT: “How can I get my son to run faster?” Aware that he needed something more than an AI chatbot and the local training Bronson was getting, David sought out current coach, Stephen Garnham.
Garnham coached the Olympic bronze medallist Charlie Dobson as a junior and is known at Colchester Harriers for working miracles with the 400m runner.
But just as Bronson arrived, Garnham was winding down. He had reduced the number of coaching sessions, so it took a word from the vice chair of Colchester Harriers, Dave Smith, for him to take a look at Bronson. Within a couple of sessions he was sold: Garnham became Bronson’s coach and came back to the track more regularly.
“We appreciate Steve for everything he’s done. He’s a world-class coach,” David says. “99% of athletics coaches work for free. They don’t make any money from the athletes themselves. They have to deal with the parents and sometimes the parents can be a bit of a nightmare, like me.”
David, the self-aware, proud dad, knows the challenges facing British Athletics. He manages his son’s social media alongside Bronson and Bronson’s girlfriend, and sees the platforms as a gateway to get all the technical, nutritional and material help the 15-year-old needs to make it to the next level.
In the face of funding cuts and a lack of public interest in athletics outside of the Olympics and world championships, David argues that social media is the way forward. “For any parent who has a kid in athletics, your best bet is to do your social media and get your kid’s name out there.”
Bronson agrees: “Content creators posting about athletics will definitely widen the reach of athletics and get more people involved. I want to get more people in the sport so more attention is put on track.”
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