‘Losing a medal is heartbreaking’
KILTY WILL NEVER FORGIVE UJAH
RICHARD KILTY has accused fellow sprinter Reece Prescod of talking “bulls***” by voicing sympathy for the athlete who cost him his Olympic relay silver medal.
Kilty, Zharnel Hughes and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake failed to get the baton round on their first appearance since becoming the innocent victims of CJ Ujah’s positive drugs test in Tokyo.
Disappointment at their blunder in Saturday’s Birmingham Diamond League meet only added to the frustration and anger Kilty still feels at being robbed of his career highlight.
Ujah faces a ban of up to four years and last week Prescod, who ran the 100m for Team GB in Japan and was reserve for the 4x100m relay, said he hoped he would run again.
“You can’t just rule someone out,” said Prescod, right. “People have got to realise he’s still a person.”
That irked Kilty, who admits he can never forgive Ujah for his “sloppy and reckless” behaviour in using supplements that had not being batch-tested by Informed Sport.
Kilty said: “Reece is not in a position to forgive anybody because he hasn’t lost a medal. There’s nothing more heartbreaking than losing an Olympic medal.
“It’s bulls*** what he said to be honest, it’s as simple as that, I’m not going to be politically correct.
“People say the sport needs more honesty, but he hasn’t lost an Olympic medal. Would he say that if he had? People can’t understand how heartbreaking it is until they’ve gone through it themselves. Only me, Zharnel and Nethaneel know.”
Adam Gemili, who took Ujah’s place in the British sprint quartet at Alexander Stadium, agreed. He said: “It’s very hard for myself and Reece to truly understand. It was Richard, Nethaneel and Zharnel who had that taken away from them. We have to support them, be there for them.
“We’ll go out there, put it behind us, win a medal, win the Worlds, Commonwealths and Europeans. That should be our aim.
“Nothing will ever make up for it, it’s heartbreaking, even for me and I didn’t run.”
The stadium, which has been transformed for this summer’s Commonwealth Games at a cost of £72million, was hailed as “beautiful” by 100m winner Dina Asher-Smith. But Yohan Blake, the joint-second fastest man in history, complained that the track is not conducive to fast times. He said: “I don’t know whether it is the cold, or what, but I know I am in great shape and the track was not quick.”
❑ EILISH McCOLGAN broke Paula Radcliffe’s British and European 10km record as she finished runner-up at the Great Manchester Run.
McColgan, 31, took two seconds off Radcliffe’s mark from 2003 with a time of 30 minutes 19 seconds, four seconds behind Kenyan Hellen Obiri. “I’m over the moon,” said McColgan.