Great Britain’s speed king Zharnel Hughes admits Olympic heartbreak inspired him to his historic 100m bronze at the World Championships.
The 28-year-old clocked 9.88 seconds to finish third in Sunday’s night final – less than an hour after Katarina Johnson-Thompson won heptathlon gold in Budapest.
Hughes became the first British man to win an individual 100m sprint medal at the worlds in 20 years – since Darren Campbell’s bronze in 2003.
The USA’s Noah Lyles took the title in 9.83 seconds with Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo winning silver, just a thousandth of a second ahead of Hughes.
It marks Hughes’ comeback after he was disqualified for a false start in the Olympic 100m final.
He said: “The heartbreak I’ve been through from Tokyo was devastating. Last year, I missed out on the finals. I got knocked out in the semis. I told myself this time, ‘I’m not getting knocked out whatsoever. I’m going to give it my very best’.
“I got through that semis and I told myself in the warm-up, ‘believe Zharnel. You got this’.
“I kept it all in. I cried a lot but lessons were learnt and I dug deep. It’s been years of trying, years of lessons – I wouldn’t call it failure – years of lessons.
“Doubts were there. People probably didn’t believe in me as much but I just need to believe in myself. Over the years the speed has always been there but the mind wasn’t aligned properly. Now it’s instinct.
“This morning I wrote down, ‘get a medal’. I thought I won. Being in the race, it looks a lot closer but a medal is a medal.”
The European 200m champion went into the race as the fastest man in the world this year and was boosted after defending champion Fred Kerley crashed out in the semi final, along with Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs.
Hughes, ranked 12th in the world ahead of the championships, had qualified fourth fastest after running 9.93s in his semi.
Yet he had struggled with a slow start in the heat and semi and, despite the fastest reaction time in the final, still needed to recover in the last 50m to ensure he snatched a podium place in a tight race.
It caps a remarkable summer for the Anguilla-born star, who trains under Usain Bolt’s former coach Glen Mills, after he broke two long-standing British records.
In June, he shattered Linford Christie’s 30-year 100m record by running 9.83s in New York.
A month later in London, he broke John Regis’ 200m mark to post 19.73s. Hughes is now eyeing the 200m and 4x100m relay.
Eugene Amo-Dadzie, an accountant who is due back to work as a senior management accountant for property developer Berkeley Group on August 29, bowed out in the semi-final after running 10.03s – still quicker than Olympic champion Jacobs.
Reece Prescod ran 10.26s and also failed to qualify, ending his championships as the 25-year-old pulled out of the 4x100m relay squad last week.
Next time I touch the 100m: Kerley has sights set on Bolt’s world record
2022 World 100m champion Fred Kerley has his sights set on Usain Bolt’s 15-year-old 100m World Record.
In fact, the 29-year-old says that the next time he does the event, he will become the fastest man ever.
“World record next time I touch the 100m,” Kerley said on Twitter on Tuesday.
Usain Bolt’s mark stands at an incredible 9.58 done to win his maiden World Championship gold medal at the Berlin World Championships on August 16, 2009.
Bolt is the only man to ever run faster than 9.60 with Tyson Gay and Yohan Blake the only other men to run sub 9.70.
Gay and Blake both have a personal best of 9.69 to be joint-second on the all-time list.
Kerley, one of the only athletes ever to go sub-10 in the 100m, sub-20 in the 200m and sub-44 in the 400m, has a personal best of 9.76 done at the World Championships in 2022 in Eugene where he went on to claim 100m gold.
His time puts him in a three-way tie for sixth all-time alongside countrymen Christian Coleman and Trayvon Bromell.
Asafa Powell (9.72), Justin Gatlin (9.74) and Ferdinand Omanyala (9.77) make up the top ten.
This season, Kerley has competed four times in the 100m. He opened his season with a win at the Hurricane Invitational on March 16 in Coral Gables, Florida with 10.03 and followed that up at the same venue on April 6 in the Hurricane Alumni Invitational with 10.11 to also come out on top.
Kerley then competed at the season’s first two Diamond League events in Xiamen and Suzhou on April 20 and 27, respectively. He first ran 10.17 to finish second in Xiamen before running 10.11 for third in Suzhou.
He most recently competed at the Jamaica Athletics Invitational on May 11 where he ran 20.17 to finish second in the men’s 200m.
Great Britain’s Hughes, Asher-Smith get 200m victories at Jamaica Athletics Invitational
Great Britain’s Zharnel Hughes and Dina Asher-Smith took victories in the men’s and women’s 200m events at the inaugural Jamaica Athletics Invitational at the National Stadium in Kingston on Saturday.
Hughes, a bronze medallist in the 100m at last year’s World Championships in Budapest, produced a season’s best 19.96 to win ahead of American Fred Kerley (20.17) and France’s Pablo Mateo (20.20).
“I feel really good. I think this is my second 200m race of the season. When I opened up I wasn’t ready so tonight I was just testing out the waters. We’re starting to sharpen up but not as much because it’s a long season,” Hughes said after the race.
“To run 19.96 now, I’m very happy. I just need to stay healthy and continue to execute my races accordingly and everything will be okay,” he added.
2019 World Champion Asher-Smith narrowly won the women’s event in 22.51 ahead of the Ivory Coast’s Jessika Gbai (22.53) with Jamaica’s Lanae-Tava Thomas running 22.84 for third.
Asher-Smith says she was hoping for a quicker time and has some things to work on.
“I’m in really good shape so I was hoping to get a quicker time today. Clearly, I’ve got some stuff that I’ve got to work on so I’m going to go back to Austin and work on them but I’m happy to have won here in Jamaica,” she said.
Lyston through to 100m final at SEC Outdoors; Pryce becomes eighth-fastest Jamaican ever to advance to 400m final
Brianna Lyston secured a chance at the sprint double at the SEC Outdoor Championships in Gainesville, Florida after booking her spot in the final of the women’s 100m.
The LSU sophomore, who ran 22.31 on Thursday to secure her spot in the 200m final, came back a day later to run 11.09 to be the joint-fastest qualifier for Saturday’s final alongside collegiate leader Jacious Sears of Tennessee.
Bahamian Florida junior Wanya McCoy and Jamaican Georgia freshman Jehlani Gordon advanced to the men’s 100m final as the second and ninth fastest qualifiers with 10.09 and 10.17, respectively.
The women’s 400m prelims saw Arkansas senior Nickisha Pryce become the eighth-fastest Jamaican ever in the event.
Pryce, who is Jamaica’s reigning national champion, ran a personal best and collegiate leading 49.72 to advance to the final as the fastest qualifier ahead of teammate Kaylyn Brown who ran 49.86.
LSU sophomore Jahiem Stern produced 13.45 to advance to the final of the 110m hurdles.
In the field, the Jamaican Arkansas pair of Romaine Beckford and Wayne Pinnock won gold in the high jump and long jump, respectively.
Beckford had a best clearance of 2.22m to win ahead of LSU’s Kuda Chadenga (2.19m) and Ole Miss’s Arvesta Troupe (2.14m).
Pinnock, a sliver medalist at last year’s World Championships in Budapest, jumped 8.09m to successfully defend his SEC title.
Georgia’s Micah Larry produced 7.80m for second while Florida’s Caleb Foster was third with the same distance.
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
