It took 6.49sec of staggering power and fluency for Jeremiah Azu to win the 60m European Indoor gold for Britain. And about the same time again for him to have a packed crowd in Apeldoorn eating out of his hand.
For no sooner had he been asked for his thoughts on his victory, the Rotterdam-born Azu began to speak in fluent Dutch: “I am here, I am in the building!” Having been foot perfect on the track, the 23-year-old proved to be word perfect off it too.
Extra motivation, Azu admitted, had been provided after his wife, Terri, gave birth to their son, Azaire, last week – even though it had led to a few sleepless nights.
“It’s a huge moment with his father becoming a European champion,” he said. “He’s going to be able to look back on this and see what his dad was doing, which is an amazing feeling.
“But last week was rough,” added Azu, who joins a roll call of British winners of this title that includes Linford Christie, Colin Jackson and Richard Kilty.
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“Honestly, people go on about sleep and not that I didn’t believe them, but I feel like everyone over dramatises it, but they’re not joking at all.”
Azu’s parents, Alex and Cathreen, were also unlikely to get much sleep on Saturday given they had to dash off to catch the overnight ferry back to Cardiff in time for Alex to preach in church at 11.30am. “My dad’s preaching tomorrow, so he’s getting back at 5am,” he added.
Sweden’s Henrik Larsson took silver in 6.52, with another Briton, Andrew Robertson, claiming bronze in 6.55 after getting a call up on Monday after a withdrawal.
“I was eating cheesecake last Saturday and now I’m a bronze medallist,” said the 34-year-old Robertson. “And now I’m going to celebrate with another cheesecake.”
