Louie Hinchliffe continues to live up to his reputation as British sprinting’s newest sensation. Fresh from outperforming Noah Lyles, the world No 1, in the first round of the 100m the 22-year-old declared there is better to come. Hinchliffe is the mullet who flies like a bullet. Ominously for the remainder of the field he appears to relish the big occasion.
Hinchliffe, on his Olympic debut, breezed his way into Sunday’s semi-final in 9.98sec. He was one of five runners in eight heats to run in sub-10 seconds. More striking was that Hinchliffe shuffled Lyles into second place, who was among those to acknowledge Hinchliffe’s display. Was the American surprised? “Yes and no,” said Lyles. “He is a talented kid.”
Perhaps we ain’t seen nothing yet. “I think so,” said Hinchliffe when asked whether he can improve for the semis. “The pressure, the environment will definitely bring more out of me. Trying to get to an Olympic final will, I think, bring a bit more.”
Hinchliffe claimed to have ignored Lyles’s position in lane six. This will, however, go down as the Englishman’s latest statement of intent.
He ran 9.95, the sixth-fastest time in British sprint history, when winning his discipline at the NCAA Championships in Oregon this year. Hinchliffe also has track and field royalty on his side; he is coached by the nine-time Olympic champion Carl Lewis.
“It was a good feeling,” was the Hinchliffe response to beating Lyles. “I wasn’t really thinking too much about him, he wasn’t really near me. I didn’t really think about who else was in the race. He said ‘well done’ and acknowledged me at the end.
“It is amazing. That environment brings the most out of all of us. You have to use that to your advantage. It is a very, very fast track but the main point is using the crowd to your advantage. That pressure brings the best out of you.”
Lewis had advised Hinchliffe to “block out the noise” and run his own race. The Sheffield runner, a former scratch golfer, smiled when asked how far this approach can take him at the Stade de France. “I don’t know,” he said. “I am just running my races at the moment. I am not really thinking too much about results. I don’t really want to chase results.”
Lyles is taking a different approach. What time will it take to win gold? “I don’t know but I’m going to run it,” he said. “Second is fine. But we will make sure from now it is first.” Shots fired.
While Hinchliffe and Lyles looked ahead, his Team GB teammate Jeremiah Azu cut a frustrated figure after being disqualified for a false start in heat one.
Azu, the European bronze medallist, argued for a decent period of time with officials by the side of the track but was denied a run under immediate protest.
“I just reacted to a sound,” said Azu. “The fans are superb and super‑excited for the Olympic Games. I have heard something and just reacted.
“I asked to run under protest because I was sure if we put a protest in, it would go through. They said no, that I had to get off the track, put the protest in then come back and run by myself. I’ll go through the formalities of it and see what happens.”
The appeal was unsurprisingly declined in pretty short order, leaving Azu to focus on the 4x100m relay.
Canada’s Aaron Brown suffered the same fate as Azu in the final heat. In that race, competitively the toughest of the octet, Team GB’s Zharnel Hughes joined Hinchliffe in the semi-finals with a third-place finish in 10.03. Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson – the fastest man in the world this year, won his heat in 10.00.
