Ben Pattison can be forgiven for staring in wide-eyed disbelief after crossing the line to claim Britain’s first world championships medal in the men’s 800m since Peter Elliott in 1987. After all, three years ago, surgeons had to burn off some of his heart because it would race at over 240 beats a minute while training.
But on sizzling hot night in Budapest the 21-year-old from Frimley in Surrey was coolness personified as he held off a chasing pack to win bronze in 1min 44.83sec.
As Pattison explained afterwards, he was finally diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, a condition that makes the heart suddenly beat abnormally fast, after going to his doctor multiple times from the age of 10.
The first time he was told there was nothing that could be done. Then, when it was eventually diagnosed, it was suggested he should stop running. And even after heart surgery in March 2020, he was unable to run four months.
“I first went to the doctors about it when I was 10 because I knew something was wrong,” Pattison said. “My heart rate would go up to 250 bpm and I could feel that but they said there was nothing wrong with me. Then I bought a heart rate monitor to go to altitude. I was doing a session a week into having it and I thought: ‘This thing is broken,’ because it said 240 bpm and I was not running that quick.
“It kept happening and I went to the doctors and I remember specifically the doctor said to me: ‘Can you just not run?’ I was like: ‘No this is my career, this is my future.’ That was their first instinct but then they sent it off to specialists and decided I have to have this operation.”
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Pattison, who finished behind Canada’s Marco Arop, who took gold in 1:44.24 and Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi, who claimed silver, added: “At the time it was very scary. I was awake for the whole thing. It was a bit surreal. I was watching. They had to burn off a bit of my heart.”
There was a second British bronze medal on the night as the women’s 4x100m relay team came third with a time of 41.97. Far ahead of them the US team were winning an epic shootout with Jamaica, with Sha’Carri Richardson holding off Shericka Jackson. However Asha Philip, Imani-Lara Lansiquot, Bianca Williams and Daryll Neita were rightly delighted with their medal.
• This article was amended on 27 August 2023 because an earlier version said that Ben Pattison’s heart would race at 240 beats a second while training. This should have said 240 beats per minute.
