Paris 2024: Sprint sensation Louie Hinchliffe to make Olympic Games debut after UK Athletics Championships win
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Updated 30/06/2024 at 08:15 GMT
Louie Hinchliffe has continued his meteoric rise in British sprinting and will represent Team GB at Paris 2024 this summer. The 21-year-old beat former UK champion Jeremiah Azu to the 100m title at the UK Athletics Championships in Manchester on Saturday. Elsewhere, Paris-bound Molly Caudery is setting the bar high following her title win and a week after setting a new British pole vault record.
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Sprinting sensation Louie Hinchliffe secured a place on the trip to the Paris Olympic Games after steaming to the 100m UK Championships title on Saturday.
The 21-year-old crossed the line in 10.18 seconds despite adverse weather conditions, ensuring his stunning breakthrough year would be capped with an Olympic debut.
Under the tutelage of nine-time Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis, Hinchliffe has broken the 10-second barrier twice in 2024, though the first was wind-assisted.
The second saw him take the NCAA 100m title with a time of 9.95 seconds, the sixth-fastest sprint on the all-time British list.
“Going to the Olympics will mean everything,” said Hinchliffe. “It’s what I’ve been dreaming about since I was a kid.”
“The sky is the limit,” added coach Lewis.
Jeremiah Azu, who won the same event in 2022, will join Hinchliffe in Paris after finishing runner-up in a stacked men’s final.
The UK Athletics Championships, held in Manchester, serves as qualification for the Olympic Games, with athletes needing a top-two finish and the World Athletics entry standard.
Absent from the track due to a hamstring injury, fellow sprinter and British record holder Zharnel Hughes was granted a medical exemption and is expected to compete for Team GB this summer.
In the women’s 100m, Daryll Neita became British champion for the fourth time and will race in Paris, having already achieved the qualifying standard.
Neita faces off against two-time Olympic medallist Dina Asher-Smith in the 200m on Sunday.
Asher-Smith reclaimed her 100m crown from Neita last year, but opted out this time around to focus on the longer sprint.
Cindy Sember and Lizzie Bird will both be returning to the Olympics hoping for a first medal after winning the 100m hurdles and 3000m steeplechase respectively.
Caudery setting the bar high
Reigning British pole vault champion Molly Caudery is ahead of schedule in her Olympic dream, capping an incredible week for the Cornish athlete.
The 24-year-old set a new British record of 4.92m in France last Saturday, a leap that also put her top of the world standings.
And while Caudery could not quite extend that by a centimetre in Manchester, a jump of 4.83m was enough for the UK title and a ticket to the French capital.
“Coming into this year it [my goal] was just to make Paris and maybe make the final,” said Caudery. “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.”
Nick Percy’s second place in the discus was enough to put him on the trip too, after achieving the qualifying standard in April.
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