The most exclusive club in European sprinting has a new member. In front of a watching Linford Christie, Great Britain’s Romell Glave has followed in the rapid footsteps of the nation’s most successful sprinter by being crowned European 100 metres champion.
After the Italian favourite and defending champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs pulled up after 50m with an apparent hamstring injury, Glave brilliantly converted his fast start over the second half of the race to lead home a British one-two ahead of Jeremiah Azu. It also sealed a different home sprint double following Amy Hunt’s victory in the women’s 100m the previous evening and puts the British team on top of the medal table. “Total domination,” Glave said of the sprinters.
Glave, who won the bronze medal behind Jacobs at the previous European Championships in Rome, has improved steadily over the past two years and followed up several sub-10 second runs earlier this season to triumph here into a headwind in 10.09sec. “I am European champion; I’ve been dreaming of this moment from the start of the season,” said the 25-year-old, who moved to south London from Jamaica in 2015, where he combined athletics with cricket and football. Most extraordinary is how he overcame two separate back fractures in 2020 that required him to wear a brace for a year to now become the self-professed sprint “King of Europe”.
Sporting a golden crown that had been passed to him trackside and wearing sunglasses that did not leave his face all evening, the softly-spoken Glave, whose hero was Usain Bolt, said that he now hopes to become genuinely competitive on the world stage.
“I was born in Jamaica, but Britain is where I was made,” he said. “Just watching Usain Bolt at the Beijing Olympics, the way he changed his life, I knew that I can change my life as well and that was the main mission. I’m a living testimony to be patient. Every journey is unique. Now it’s my time.” And the big sunglasses? “It’s part of my style, my personality, my fashion identity,” he said.
Jacobs had been hoping to join only Christie and the Soviet great Valeriy Borzov in becoming a triple European 100m champion but, after looking imperious in the semi-final, injury struck in the final some 80 minutes later. Azu had earlier made a typically quick start before holding on for silver in 10.16.
“I am super happy, super grateful to my family – we always say times are irrelevant at this point. You want to go out there and race for medals,” said Azu, whose silver followed a world indoor gold last year over 60m. It is only the third time that British men have won the top two medals in the European 100m, after Zharnel Hughes and Reece Prescod in 2018 and when Darren Campbell beat Dwain Chambers in 1998.
Great Britain’s Marcia Sey also reached the women’s 110m hurdles but finished eighth in a race won by the Netherlands’ Nadine Visser by the narrowest measurable difference of one thousandth of a second in 12.67sec over Poland’s Pia Skrzyszowski.
Hunt and Asher-Smith eye the 200m
Amy Hunt returns to action in the women’s 200m sprint on Wednesday when she will be hoping to win the second of a potential four gold medals this week following her 100m win on Monday. Her team-mate Dina Asher-Smith was fifth in the women’s 100m on Monday but has been better so far this year over the longer sprint and will be going for a seventh European title.
Hunt, who usually wears silver jewellery, revealed that her parents had gifted her a pair of gold earrings after she had finished second over the past year at both the World Championship and Commonwealth Games. “I back myself so incredibly hard because I do want to be the best,” Hunt said. “I’m not saying that I’m the best right now. That’s something I aspire to be. Now we have the introduction of the mixed relay, it gives me even more chances to set out for gold.
“And our relay is one of the strongest in the world. So, I can’t wait for that. And I’ve got my obviously more favourite event, the 200, coming up.”
Hunt, a 24-year-old Cambridge graduate in English literature, said that she has been keeping her “brain ticking over” during a potential week of competition by playing New York Times games like Spelling Bee, Pips and Connections as well as Wordle, the popular web-based word game.
“It wakes my brain up without having to overthink,” she said.
Earlier in the evening, the British runner Hannah Nuttall finished fifth in the 5,000m after being in contention for bronze down the home straight. The race was won by the brilliant Italian Nadia Battocletti, who also won the 5,000m and 10,000m double at the European Championship two years ago in Rome.
There was a smooth qualification into the final of the 400m on Wednesday for European record holder Matthew Hudson-Smith, who is going for his third European title. Hudson-Smith, an Olympic silver medallist, was born in Wolverhampton and learnt to race on the Alexander Stadium track with the Birchfield Harriers club that is based at the stadium. A stand is now named in his honour. Charlie Dobson, who won European silver two years ago in Rome, made a surprise exit in the semi-final.