Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
AWESOME FOURSOME
Zharnel’s redemption as England bag relay double
ZHARNEL HUGHES finally won a gold medal that he was allowed to keep as England’s sprinters showed the Commonwealth a clean pair of heels.
Disqualified after winning the 200m, he could have spat his dummy and walked out on these Games.
Instead, Hughes took it on the chin, booked a 6am alarm call and returned the next morning to help England’s sprint relay quartet qualify fastest.
Yesterday, on the same track that he was adjudged to have obstructed an opponent in order to cross the line first, he ran flawlessly to complete his redemption story.
“It’s been a long week, man, very long,” Hughes (below) said after an England team minus all last summer’s World Championship-winning GB quartet, clocked 38.13 seconds.
“But at the end of it I’m still a gold medallist. I said to the guys, ‘Just get me the baton, I’m going to do what I have to do, it’s going to be redemption’.
“And I did just that. I still feel a bit sad about the 200, but it’s done – I can’t do anything about it. I put that behind me to refocus for this and show
I’m a world-class athlete.” In third place were once-mighty Jamaica, prompting Usain Bolt to tweet: “Did I retire too soon? Hmmm.”
“In terms of depth, our top 10-12 are the best sprinting nation in the world,” said English star Richard Kilty.
England’s women picked a long jumper to bring home their team and Lorraine Ugen (above, right with Asha Philip) delivered their second gold in a national record 42.46secs.
“I only found out yesterday I was on the team,“said Ugen, who had finished fourth in Thursday’s long jump. “I did my first baton exchanges in the warm up area 10 minutes before the race! They gave me a really big lead and all I had to do was hold it.”
Team-mate Dina Asher-Smith, who added gold to an individual 200m bronze, said: “Lorraine knows what she’s doing.
“After the men did it, we couldn’t embarrass ourselves. Anything they can do we can better.”