A little over two years ago, the 1997 world 4x400m relay champion Iwan Thomas hailed young Charlie Dobson as the “Ginger Ninja” – and predicted that he would break his European championship 400m record. It was a bold act of prophecy, given that Dobson had only ever run the distance twice. Yet on a remarkable Rome evening it came true.
The only problem? While the 24-year-old ran a personal best of 44.38sec to take silver, Belgium’s world indoor champion, Alexander Doom, entered a different stratosphere as he powered to victory in 44.15.
