Hughes and Asher-Smith roared to Euro success and are setting their sights on Olympic glory
BRITAIN has a “golden generation” of sprinters which will be revered like the Jamaica team of Usain Bolt’s prime come the 2020 Olympics.
So predicted Zharnel Hughes the day after he and Dina Asher-Smith swept the 100m titles for Britain at the Euros.
“There is a new breed of athletes, this is a whole new era,” Hughes said following his championship record performance.
“I think it is a golden generation. Will people talk about GB in the way we’ve talked about Jamaica in previous Olympics? I definitely think so.”
No question Asher-Smith is already in that company, having smashed her own British record and clocked a world lead 10.85 for her gold.
“When I heard her time I thought ‘whaaat’!!” admitted Hughes, ex-boyfriend of Dynamo Dina, who is hot favourite to add 200m gold on Saturday. “That’s really quick.
“This is just a stepping stone for the greatness to come for Great Britain. It shows we are ready to take on the rest of the world in the future.”
These are bold words considering Jamaica, aside from Bolt, boasted a raft of global medalists across three Olympic and world cycles.
But nobody knows that better than Hughes, who is coached on the island by Glen Mills, the man who guided eight-time Olympic gold medalist Bolt to greatness. “We’ve definitely evolved in terms of sprinting,” Hughes continued.
“Reece (Prescod), CJ (Ujah), Adam (Gemili), Nethaneel (MitchellBlake): it’s so stacked now for Great Britain.
“And we still have two years until Tokyo. We can get much stronger and much faster. That’s when we’ll be at our peak.”
Focus switches to the men’s 200m final tonight where Mitchell-Blake and Gemili aim to add individual medals to last summer’s world relay gold. Mitchell-Blake – who clocked 20.35 to finish second in his semi – caused a sensation by out-sprinting Bolt and Christian Coleman to bring the baton home first at last year’s Worlds in London – and is tipped to triumph by Coleman.
“Nethaneel was a rival for me in college and he’s a great sprinter,” said the world indoor champion.
“I’ve had many races with him and he’s always a great competitor. If I had to pick out one it would be him.”
Martyn Rooney (above) will not bag a hat-trick of 400m titles but there is every chance Britain will make it three in a row through Matthew HudsonSmith.
The British champion won his semifinal so easily in 44.76secs that he stopped racing with 80m still to go.