Martyn Joseph Rooney (born 3 April 1987) is an English sprinter who specialises in the 400 metres event. He reached the 400 m final at the 2008 Summer Olympics and won bronze in the 4×400 metres relay. A mainstay on the anchor leg of the Great Britain and England 4 x 400 metre relay teams, at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics he won a silver medal with the Great Britain relay team, and bronze in the 2015 and 2017 World Championships. Individually, Rooney is a two-time European champion at 400 metres in 2014. and 2016. A five time national champion, his personal best time of 44.45 seconds ranks third all-time in Great Britain behind national record-holders Matthew Hudson-Smith and Iwan Thomas. Career Born and raised in Thornton Heath, London, the second of four children born to Marie (née Martyn) and Liam Rooney Sr., Irish immigrants from Sligo and Westmeath, respectively, Rooney started running for Croydon Harriers just before starting his secondary school, The John Fisher School. He attended St James the Great Primary School, Thornton Heath where his mum teaches. As a result, he became an avid Crystal Palace F.C. fan. Initially training and competing at the middle distances; 800 metres and 1500 metres and doing cross country throughout the winter, Rooney's talent for the one lap sprint was discovered by coincidence when he stood in to make up points at a London fixture. Rooney was selected to represent Great Britain at the 2005 European Juniors, held in Lithuania in July of that year. He achieved the Silver Medal in the individuals and gold with the relay team and on his return home was then asked to make up the senior's 4 × 400 m men's relay team at the 2005 IAAF World Championships in Athletics, held that year in Helsinki, Finland. Martyn was originally running only in the heat, but impressing the GB coaches with a time of 44.9 seconds, he was selected to also run in the final. Despite completing his leg in 44.8 seconds, Martyn and team mates Timothy Benjamin, Robert Tobin and Malachi Davis came in fourth, with a sub three-minute time. Rooney represented England in the 2006 Commonwealth Games held in Melbourne, Australia. Despite impressing everyone throughout the heats, he came fifth in the final with a time of 45.51 seconds and set a new British Junior Record, previous held by Roger Black for