Louie Hinchliffe clinches Olympic bronze medal at Paris 2024
By Tom Harle at Stade de France
After being told he should choose a career in golf over athletics, Sheffield’s Louie Hinchliffe is an Olympic bronze medallist.
The 22-year-old joined forces with Jeremiah Azu, Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake, Zharnel Hughes and Middlesbrough’s Richard Kilty, who ran the heat, to reach the podium in a chaotic men’s 4x100m relay final.
Hughes took the baton with GB in sixth place and ran a stunning 8.78s split to lift Britain to bronze in a time of 37.61.
It is Team GB’s first medal in the event since gold at Athens 2004.
“You could see it was a really messy race but we gave our all,” said Hinchliffe.
“It was all heart, all pure speed and we gave 110 per cent. You could see how much we wanted it and we got the result so it's great."
Less than a year after reaching out to Carl Lewis and asking whether the nine-time would coach him, Hinchliffe has an Olympic medal to his name.
It was all the sweeter given the British champion narrowly missed out on a place in the 100m final.
Gold went to Canada in 37.50, with the experienced quartet of Aaron Brown, Jerome Blake, Brendon Rooney and Andre de Grasse claiming their first 4x100m title since Atlanta 1996, and South Africa took silver in 37.57.
Even without Covid-ridden 100m gold medallist Noah Lyles, USA were favourites for gold but once again could not get the baton around safely.
It was a redemptive strike for Hughes, Mitchell-Blake and Kilty, who were stripped off silver in Tokyo after CJ Ujah's doping violation.
"It's phenomenal. It's like a changing of the guards,” said Mitchell-Blake.
“I'm fortunate enough to have been part of a couple of quartets and we have some younger guys who have performed phenomenally this year.
“It's been a good mixture of experience and youth and exuberance and we've had opportunities thanks to the National Lottery to do camps to prepare for this. We're one of the best trained teams in the world so we always find a way to step up when it matters most."
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