Sean Baldock from Hastings was very much a relay man on the International stage winning several Major Games Medals although not always appearing in the finals of the 4 x 400m relays.
A good class footballer Sean Michael was the second son born to Mick and Joy Baldock on 3rd December 1976 at Hastings and joined the Hasting Athletic Club as an eleven year old but football was his first love and athletics certainly took a back seat.
He was however a frequent competitor at Sussex championships and Sussex Schools events while he was at Hillcrest School but did not feature amongst the medallists as he ran 800/1500 metre races in the younger age groups and he shone more as a footballer where he played for the Hastings United team.
He incurred too many injuries playing football and at eighteen he made the decision to choose athletics as his sport, stepped down in distance to 400 metres and made a meteoric rise to the top of British “one lappers” running in Olympic, European, Commonwealth and World Students games as an individual and member of the 4 x 400m relay squads.
He raced at English Schools in 1995 and 1996 when he finished second in the senior 400 metres while from 1996 he quickly became one of the leading British 400 metre runners.
He raced well at Brunel and then Brighton University where he ran for the British Universities team in the 4 x 400m relay team in 1997 at the Universaide Games in Italy.
This same year he had also run in the 4 x 400 for Great Britain at the World Indoor championships in Paris and he became almost a permanent member of the English and United Kingdom team at all the Major Games including two Olympics for the next seven years.
He had a busy year in 1998 taking second place in the National Indoor championships and finishing sixth in the European Indoor 400m Championships in Valencia despite clocking 46.59s for third place in the individual semi-final while the team finished third in the relay. In the World Cup at Johannesburg he 
collected a gold medal in the 4 x 400m relay while in the European Champs in Budapest he helped the British team to victory in the heat of the 4 x 440m heat but did not line up for the final where they missed the medals. He completed the year at the Commonwealth Games at Kuala Lumpur where they took the silver medals in the 4 x 400m relay.
The World Indoor championships in Japan in 1999 he ran in the heats of the relay but in Olympic year at Sydney in 2000 Sean ran in the individual 400m but did not survive his heat.
Once at University and in the senior age group Sean missed most of the Sussex championships as he was usually away at “Warm weather” training the same weekend. He did however make the 2003 championships where he set the championship record of 46.5s that still stands in 2020.
In amongst all his International commitments Sean won three South of England 400 metre championships, collected several medals at National Championships and in 2004 he made athletics history.
Many top athletes leave their home clubs as they climb the ladder to International competition but I cannot recall any other top athlete who did what Sean did and leave his top club, in Sean’s case Belgrave, and he returned to Hastings A.C, “The Club that steered me through my early development and set me on the ri
ght track.
He was only able to run for them again for a year however before back injuries forced a retirement from the sport but he became a coach and is now a Personal Trainer. He now applies the disciplines and techniques of athletics to other sports or just improving personal fitness.
Sean lives at Hastings with his partner Lolly.
Sean has an elder brother, Steve, who was also an athlete but more of a middle distance runner, and spent a short time at Belgrave but then, like Sean returned to Hasting where he ran for the Masters team for several seasons.