Mitchell-Blake out to seize spotlight
NETHANEEL MITCHELL-BLAKE is convinced athletics will never fill the void left by Usain Bolt’s retirement — but believes sprinting will be far more competitive now that he has gone.
The Briton is in the vanguard of emerging sprinters who grew up watching Bolt dominate his sport for a decade, before the Jamaican quit following London 2017.
While finding an athlete who can match Bolt’s transcendental charisma will be desperately tough, if not impossible, his exit has cleared the way for a fascinating battle to take his place on podiums.
Mitchell-Blake is among those positioned to step up, having taken fourth in the 200m at London and a gold in the 4x100m relay in what has been an impressive breakthrough season for the 23-year-old. The question is whether he can make the transition from contender to individual medallist, with a signal likely to come today when he takes on a stacked 200m field at the Muller Grand Prix Birmingham, including world champion Ramil Guliev and Isaac Makwala.
‘Usain Bolt left a void... it can never be filled,’ said MitchellBlake. ‘Anyone can go on and achieve great things in the future but what he’s done in the sport I honestly believe no one will be able to match that — not just on the track but off the track as well.
‘He’s a universal icon. He’s more recognised than any other athlete in the world. But other athletes will be going into races and it won’t be a foregone conclusion over who is going to contest gold and silver. It probably brings back more of the competitive spirit just because of the crazy times he was running.’
Bolt’s hold over the 100m and 200m events is best illustrated by the statistic that he won 13 out of the 14 World and Olympic finals he contested before he was dethroned in London.
British sprinters in that time have not won a single major medal outside the relays, but MitchellBlake said: ‘We’ve always had the aspiration of getting medals, not just now. I believe as a collective unit, British Athletics sprinters are making progress. It’s only a matter of time, sooner rather than later you’ll see us reaping the rewards.’