Punching the air as he crossed the finish line, the Louie who no one thought would be king seized his crown. “It’s kind of surreal, a couple of months ago no one really knew me,” said an awestruck Louie Hinchliffe after greeting his newly found adoring fans. “Overnight I’ve had to get used to taking selfies.”
His unlikely rapid conversion from anonymous student to Britain’s next sprint star was complete. The last time Hinchliffe, 21, competed at the British Championships two years ago he failed to advance from the 100m heats. Into a headwind on a grimly cold Manchester evening he elevated that premature exit to gold; an upgrade of epic proportions that brings with it a Team GB spot at the Paris Olympics.
In such inhospitable weather, his winning time of 10.18sec was largely irrelevant. Certainly, it was incomparable to the 9.95 he ran when becoming the first European ever to claim the NCAA 100m title in the United States earlier this month. That had placed the University of Houston student sixth on the British all-time list.
“The sky is the limit,” said his college coach, Carl Lewis, who had flown into Manchester for the occasion. As Hinchliffe was quick to point out afterwards, it does no harm having a nine-time Olympic champion in your corner. He will likely line up in Paris alongside world medallist Zharnel Hughes, who was absent from these British Championships with a hamstring problem but will be selected if fit. Jeremiah Azu clocked 10.25 for silver to almost certainly wrap up the third spot.
“Going to the Olympics will mean everything,” said Hinchliffe, who hails from Sheffield and had all but given up on athletics during his fresher year at Lancaster University before transferring to study in the United States. “It’s what I’ve been dreaming about since I was a kid.”
With European champion Dina Asher-Smith opting to contest only the 200m here, Daryll Neita reclaimed her British 100m title, clocking 11.24 into a strong headwind to take gold ahead of Amy Hunt and Imani-Lara Lansiquot. Hunt does not have the required Olympic standard, ensuring Neita, Asher-Smith and Lansiquot will form Team GB’s 100m trio.
In rather more welcoming weather earlier in the day, Molly Caudery proved so superior to her rivals – a misnomer if ever there was one – that she retained her national title with her opening jump, flaunting her Olympic pole vault gold-medal credentials with another display of total dominance.
A week after breaking her own British record, Caudery soared over 4.83m to extend her remarkable grip at the top of the global standings where she now holds six of the eight best jumps in the world this year. She also came within a whisker of setting British records in successive weekends, only narrowly flicking off the bar at her final attempt at 4.93m.
“I’m really, really happy,” she said, admitting that her achievements are forcing her to reconsider her goals. “Coming into this year it was just to make Paris and maybe make the final. Now it’s definitely looking like trying to get a medal. Which medal it will be we’ll see but I’d love to get up there. Gold is the dream.”
Keely Hodgkinson qualified for Sunday’s 400m final – where she hopes to secure a 4x400m relay spot – before revealing her disappointment at American rival Athing Mu’s shock absence from the Olympics.
Mu, the reigning 800m champion, fell at the US trials earlier this week, leaving Hodgkinson as the overwhelming favourite to upgrade the silver she won in Tokyo to gold.
“I was actually gutted,” she said, of Mu’s fall. “It ruined my day. It’s just a shame to have that opportunity taken away from you for something so unfortunate. Paris won’t be the same without her.”
