Back on form: Reece Prescod celebrates his 100m victory in Ostrava
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)For a time, Reece Prescod and Matthew Hudson-Smith felt like the forgotten men of British athletics.
Every time Hudson-Smith promised to deliver, his body let him down, one injury following the other to the extent that he said: “I feel like I’ve had three years out.”
And Prescod readily admitted his weight ballooned and his addiction to Call of Duty was having a debilitating effect on his athletics career.
Following all the previous setbacks, in 2022 they have been athletes reborn. Hudson-Smith broke Iwan Thomas’s 400metre British record, a mark that had stood for a quarter of a century. And tellingly the time — the second-fastest by a European in history — was set at the Eugene track which will host the World Athletics Championships next month.
Meanwhile, Prescod has an even longer-standing British record in his sights — the 29-year-old mark of Linford Christie’s. In Ostrava last month, the Briton clocked 9.93seconds over 100m to leave him just 0.06sec shy.
“I feel this is a reset, a reset for me,” said Londoner Prescod, who gets the opportunity to back up his words at the British Athletics Championships, which get under way in Manchester today and double up as trials for the Worlds. “I’m starting again, trying to get back where I was before.”
There are parallels between the pair. They looked to be approaching their peak in 2018, during which Hudson-Smith was crowned European champion and Prescod took silver by just 0.01sec behind team-mate Zharnel Hughes.
For both, though, last summer was one to forget. Hudson-Smith pulled out of the delayed Tokyo Olympics on medical grounds, while Prescod was disqualified in Japan for a false start.
The renaissance for the pair this season has been notable, but Hudson-Smith is adamant he is not driven by times but merely more medals to add to the collection.
“You have 10 years to maximise what you’ve got,” he said. “Times are great but I want to hold medals. For me it’s podiums every time.
“Since I moved up to the 400m at 14, people have said to me, ‘British record, British record, British record’. Times are irrelevant, I want to get the silverware and, really and truly, when you’re in the top three, you run quick times anyway.
“I’m not fazed by times. I’m totally focused on championships.”
For much of the major championships in recent years, Britain’s male athletes have been upstaged by their female counterparts.
And Dina Asher-Smith, Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Laura Muir and Keely Hodgkinson will again be among the star turns in Manchester.
But Prescod is ready to prove this weekend that he can be a championship performer and medallist once more.
“When it comes to the championships and you have to run round after round, I’ll be ready,” he said. “The talent is still there. I’ve just got to bring the best out of myself now.”
