Christian Sean Malcolm is a retired Welsh athlete specialised in the 200 metres.
Early life
Malcolm was born and was brought up in Newport, where he still lives. He is of Jamaican descent. When Malcolm was 15 years old, he was offered a contract by English football clubNottingham Forest, having had trials earlier with them and Queens Park Rangers as a young forward. In a 1998 interview, Malcolm claimed he chose athletics as in his view it is a "friendlier sport and you're not as likely to get kicked around the pitch".
Malcolm won the title of World JuniorAthlete of the Year in 1998 and in the 1998 World Junior Championships, he won the 200m in 20.44 seconds. At that year's Commonwealth Games, his 20.29 for the silver medal was a European Junior and Welsh senior record. Malcolm took the 2000 European Indoor gold medal in 20.54, for a Welsh Indoor record. Outdoors he led off for the sprint relay team on the first day and ran a season's best of 20.45 to win the 200m on the second day at the European Cup. He went on to 2nd at the AAAs and to excel at the 2000 Olympics to take fifth place at 200m in 20.23. In 2001, Malcolm took the World Indoor silver medal. Outdoors he was 3rd at 100m and 2nd at 200m at the AAAs and at the World Championships ran eight races to make the finals at both 100m and 200m, finishing 6th and 5th respectively. He also competed as part of the relay team, however, the baton was dropped in the heats. After four-second places at the AAAs, Malcolm finally won the 200m in 2005 in a narrow decision over Marlon Devonish and was also 3rd at 100m. He surprised even himself with a brilliant win at the European Cup in 20.15, his best time for five years. Malcolm represented Great Britain at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. He competed at the 200 metres and placed second in his first round heat after Brian Dzingai in a time of 20.42 seconds. He improved his time in the second round to 20.30 seconds and placed fourth in his race, normally not enough to advance to the semi-finals, but his time was among the four fastest losing times and he qualified after all. With 20.25 in his semi-final race he even managed to qualify for the final, finishing fourth in his race, eliminating Paul Hession and Christopher Williams. In the final he came in seventh at 20.40 seconds, but as a result of the disqualifications of Churandy Martina and Wallace Spearmon he moved up to the fifth place overall. At the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, Malcolm, representing Wales, was one of the favourites to win the men's 200m, and took the bronze medal.
