Louie Hinchliffe beats US star Noah Lyles and Zharnel Hughes makes progress, but Jeremiah Azu is undone by a false start in qualifying heats at the Stade de France
The fortunes of Britain’s Olympic hopefuls in the men’s 100m could barely have been more contrasting in the qualifying heats on Saturday morning (August 3) at the Stade de France.
While Louie Hinchliffe’s rapid rise continued as he came first in a field that included American superstar Noah Lyles and Zharnel Hughes also progressed to the semi-finals, Jeremiah Azu’s campaign was over before it had even begun after he was disqualified for a false start.
The Welshman did attempt to run under protest, saying: “I heard something and I just reacted.” However, his appeal was rejected.
“It’s a shame, the crowd is so excited, they have got the pole vault going on, the French fans are in here,” he said. “It’s a shame they did not let me run under protest. I am not sure what rules are being used.
“I was saying I want to run under protest. Any other race they allow you to run and then afterwards you review it. It’s the Olympics so it’s clearly different rules.”
It was a very different story for Hinchliffe. The NCAA and British champion, based at the University of Houston in Texas and coached by nine-time Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis, was sampling his first experience of these Games.
If he was fazed by the prospect of stepping out on to the purple track then he certainly didn’t show it and showed an excellent closing surge to clock 9.98 (-0.2) and come home ahead of Lyles’ 10.04.
“It’s amazing,” he said of his first race in the Olympic cauldron. “That environment brings the best out of all of us. You have to make the most of it, use it to your advantage.
“The pressure, the environment will bring more out of me, trying to get to an Olympic final.”
The pre-race advice from Lewis had been for Hinchliffe to stick to his own race plan and to block out the illustrious company he was surrounded by.
“It’s a good feeling,” said the 22-year-old when asked how it felt to beat the reigning 100m and 200m world champion. “I wasn’t really thinking too much about him, he wasn’t really near me.”
The next step to negotiate is Sunday evening’s semi-finals, but does Hinchliffe now feel a medal could be within his grasp?
“I don’t know. I’m just running my races at the moment,” he said. “I’m not thinking too much about results. I don’t want to chase results.”
Jeremiah Azu…
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