William Sharman is no ordinary athlete

By George Scott, Sportsbeat

WILLIAM Sharman's CV is an impressive read - a degree in economics, masters in banking and finance, trained classical pianist and former Gladiators timekeeper - but until August's World Athletics Championships there had always been something missing.

THINKING BIG: William Sharman is never short on confidence or shy of a few words (Getty Images for Aviva)

No other British athlete made their mark in Berlin in the same vein as Sharman however, with the Belgrave Harrier announcing his arrival on the world stage with a fourth-place finish in the 110m final.

Jessica Ennis was overwhelming heptathlon favourite while it was a two-horse race for triple jump gold between Phillips Idowu and Portugese nemesis Nelson Evora.

And Lisa Dobriskey and Jenny Meadows - Great Britain's two other individual medallists - were in the world's top ten.

Sharman, on the other hand, started the year ranked 103rd and arrived at the World Championships in 31st position - but left just 0.16 seconds off gold.

In truth, Sharman may have considered himself lucky to be in the German capital at all.

Left out of the original 60-strong squad, he made the cut as a late addition after clocking a personal best of 13.44 seconds at the LEAP meeting in Loughborough.

But Sharman has since proved his performance in Berlin was not a flash in the pan.

A sixth-place finish at the Weltklasse Golden League meeting was followed by second behind Olympic silver medallist David Payne at the British Grand Prix, before claiming the scalp of British number one Andy Turner at the Great North CityGames.

And not one to rest on his laurels, Sharman admits there's work to do if he is to convert fourth into a a place on the podium - but remains coy about what the improvements he has to make.

"If I shared my weaknesses with you then I'd have to kill you - sorry I can't share that information with you as my competitor's might be listening," said Sharman, never short on confidence or shy of a few words.

"Over the winter I just need to work on those weaknesses - I know what they are so it's just a case of addressing them and eliminating them to make sure that they're firmly behind me.

"It was encouraging to be with David Payne at the end in Gateshead because he is a world class competitor and is in the mix every time.

"The last few races towards the tail end of the season are important because I put in a good performance in Berlin and I'm hot property for a lot of meets.

"I'm confident I can drop my time in the future and that's important - my aim is to maximise my potential and you can only be satisfied once you've done that.

"My one target for the next year is to get a personal best - you can only really look at your own performances and then at the end you can compare them to other athletes."

Great Britain returned from Berlin with six medals - with the men's 4x100 and 4x400m relay teams taking bronze and silver respectively.

It was an impressive haul from a squad which was far from its strongest - Olympic medallists Kelly Sotherton, Germaine Mason and Tasha Danvers were absent, while the likes of Martyn Rooney are yet to hit top form.

And while Sharman has now earmarked himself as a 2012 success story, the Northampton-born athlete remains philosophical about the road to London. 

"The Olympic Games is my long-term objective but in the meantime you need to have short-term goals," added Sharman.

"Even though I'm training towards London there's stepping stones that I have to reach in order to get there.

"My target this year was to go to the World Championships and at the beginning of the season I knew I needed to get there.

"But I just take each race as it comes - the best laid plans from of mice and men, gang aft agley."

It's not every day an athlete plucks a quote from Robert Burns, but then Sharman is no ordinary athlete.