After a double-session training day on an unseasonably balmy October afternoon in Middlesbrough, Louie Hinchliffe steps outside to leave his new coach, Richard Kilty, rehabilitating a recently mended achilles. It was little over two months ago, seconds after Hinchliffe had handed him Team GB’s baton in the Olympic 4x100 metres heats, that Kilty’s achilles ruptured. Somehow, he managed to complete his leg, keeping Britain on track to win bronze in his absence the following evening.
For Kilty, 35, the Olympic medal was a swansong to a career that had included every major international podium. The achilles tear, and subsequent surgery, would confirm his intention to retire from the track. For Hinchliffe, Britain’s new great sprint hope, it was a first international medal to follow his maiden national 100m title. Teammates at opposite ends of the career spectrum.
The pair had first met a few weeks earlier when randomly assigned the same room at the London Diamond League. The dynamic sparked, so they chose to replicate the room-sharing arrangement in Paris for the Olympics. Despite the 13-year age gap, and vast difference in life experience, something clicked. In a British sprinting landscape dominated by southerners, they wondered whether it was because of their outlier northern status – Kilty known as the Teesside Tornado and Hinchliffe hailing from Sheffield.
They revelled in bouncing athletics ideas off one another. “We just had very similar philosophies,” Hinchliffe says. “Very similar minds. I think that’s why we hit it off so well.”
Hinchliffe had made his monumental step up in 2024 – clocking 9.95 seconds to become the first European winner of America’s prestigious NCAA 100m title for college students and only narrowly missing out on the Olympic final – while under the guidance of the nine‑time Olympic champion Carl Lewis at the University of Houston. Lewis made it clear that Hinchliffe, who had spent one year at the Texan school, should return to his studies, warning him: “Leaving early and turning pro is fool’s gold in track.”
But Hinchliffe’s passion lay not in the classroom. “It’s been a dream of mine ever since I was a kid to be a professional athlete,” he says. “I could have stayed in school and possibly got that degree, but is it something I’m passionate about? No. I was the NCAA champion so there wasn’t really anything else for me to win there.”
A few weeks after the Paris Olympics and his breakthrough season, he decided to turn his back on education: “It felt like the right time. So I took the leap.”
As a deterrent to his students following such a path, Lewis had told them he would coach them as professionals only if they completed their degrees. He tried to convince Hinchliffe to stay for another year to reassess, but “was very supportive” when the answer was no. “He wished me all the best,” Hinchliffe says. “There’s no hard feelings at all. Carl taught me a lot and I can’t thank him enough.”
The departure created a gaping void in his fledgling career and the daunting dilemma of how to replace a mentor who won 17 global titles as an athlete.
During his decade in international athletics, Kilty primarily coached himself. He has long written programmes for his local training partners in the north‑east and largely oversees training for his wife, Dovile, a Lithuanian Olympic triple jumper. Last year, when injuries prevented him from gaining selection for the world championships, he helped to coach the GB 4x100m teams. Elite‑level coaching is where his future has long appeared to lie.
He recognises that eyebrows will be raised when people learn that Britain’s No 1 male sprinter has put his faith in someone who was still focused on competing themselves a few months ago. But ask him if he is daunted by the prospect and his response is unequivocal: “Not at all. I wouldn’t have taken him on if any bit of me was daunted by it or I had any doubt. I’ve got every confidence in him and myself that we’re going to do the business.”
When he made the decision to leave Lewis, Hinchliffe spent a short period looking elsewhere. He considered staying in America to join another professional group and spoke to a few coaches. But “no one else gave me the feeling” his Olympic room-mate had.
“No one seemed to be as passionate as Richard. He knows a lot about the sport,” he says. “It just felt right. You know what feels right and that felt the best.
He hasn’t had any formal coaching experience beyond the locals here but everyone’s got to start somewhere. The best coaches of all time were at that point at one time. I believe it will work.”
Kilty is absolutely determined it does. He does not plan on seeking out other athletes of Hinchliffe’s calibre to coach because “ultimately, Louie is my priority”. Joe Ferguson, who competed for Britain over 200m at the 2022 world championships, is Hinchliffe’s primary training partner, while another foreign athlete might come on board. “But I’m building my team of athletes all based around how they can help Louie. An athlete of his level needs and deserves a lot of time and attention.”
The switch has meant Hinchliffe relocated from Texas to the quiet coastal town of Saltburn‑by‑the‑Sea, with training sessions split between nearby Middlesbrough and Gateshead. His bond with Kilty is no more distant than a few months ago, but he suggests their relationship has evolved since they were relay teammates. “It’s not as much of a bromance now,” he says. “It’s more of a stricter relationship. He’s the coach so I’ve got to listen.”
Kilty remains dismissive of anyone who harbours doubts about the wisdom of Hinchliffe’s decision. “I’m going to make it my mission to do whatever I can on a daily basis to help Louie be the best in the world,” he says. “And I want to become one of the best coaches on the planet. It’s the start of a great journey.”
