Melissa Jefferson-Wood reigned supreme within the ladies’s 200m in Tokyo however the British runner-up has endured a outstanding journey to make the rostrum.
Six years have handed since Amy Hunt revealed her sprinting superpower by setting a world under-18 report of twenty-two.42 for 200m. Since then she has negotiated a pandemic, graduated from Cambridge College with an English diploma, struggled with critical damage and moved to Italy to begin a brand new life.
It has been a rollercoaster journey and on Friday in Tokyo the British sprinter hit prime pace as she earned a silver medal within the World Championships 200m last behind Melissa Jefferson-Wood of america.
Jefferson-Wood was on one other degree, clocking a world main time of 21.68 (-0.1) to finish a golden dash double in Tokyo. But within the race for silver, Hunt clocked 22.14 to beat the 2022 and 2023 world champion Shericka Jackson of Jamaica.
Anavia Battle of america was fourth in 22.22 as Dina Asher-Smith, the 2019 world champion from Britain, was fifth in 22.43.
“I knew from my coaching I knew I used to be up with the world’s greatest however I simply needed to show that,” mentioned Hunt. “Within the semi I managed to get an excellent lane within the last and my health and power actually confirmed by means of so it was superb to exhibit right here the potential I’ve been exhibiting all yr.”
Hunt was a prodigious teenage runner and along with her tall, rangey model and apparent intelligence and optimistic angle, it may very well be argued she has all the time been destined for greatness.
When she ran her world under-18 report – on a sweltering day in Mannheim that was so scorching it triggered the plastic on the underside of her spikes to soften – her time additionally broke Asher-Smith’s UK under-20 report that day.
Quickly afterwards, the gained the 2019 European under-20 gold in emphatic model. The next yr Vogue named her as one of many “faces to outline the last decade”. However challenges quickly reared their head and she or he came upon why teenage abilities typically don’t handle to bridge the hole from junior to senior success.
First the Covid pandemic interrupted her coaching and competitions, because it did to so many athletes. Then, at Cambridge College, she selected to commute again to Loughborough to coach on her dwelling monitor – as she grew up within the close by Grantham – along with her coach on the time, Joe McDonnell. It was a daring concept however she quickly grew to become exhausted – mentally and bodily.
Learning at one of many world’s prime universities meant she was typically pressured to spend extra time enhancing her studying pace than her leg pace because of the sheer quantity of books she needed to get by means of for her course.
Accidents adopted however Hunt graduated from Cambridge in 2023 and commenced to focus solely on athletics and began to slowly make her mark. A transfer to Padova to be skilled by Marco Airale has clearly paid off, too, with Hunt properly settling into Italian life.
“My transition from junior to senior athletics wasn’t the smoothest, so radical self-belief has been so necessary,” she says.
Final yr she gained European gold and Olympic bronze within the 4x100m. In 2025 she has gone from power to power, too, successful the British 100m title in a PB of 11.02 and being narrowly crushed by Asher-Smith within the 200m on the identical weekend in Birmingham.
Then on the London Diamond League in July she was crying after lastly breaking her six-year-old PB with 22.31.
In Tokyo she ran a PB of twenty-two.08 in her semi-final to move the legendary Kathy Prepare dinner and transfer into No.2 behind Asher-Smith on the all-time UK rankings. Many followers say she’s harking back to the tall long-striding Prepare dinner, who moved up from 100m and 200m to win 400m bronze on the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984.
The Olympics return to LA in three years’ time and Hunt ought to be in her prime. Solely downside is that she has to get previous the spectacular Jefferson-Wood first.
On her rise to the rostrum, Hunt mentioned: “Going by means of a rupture, surgical restore, going by means of the Cambridge system, getting my diploma, transferring nations to someplace the place I actually nonetheless do not converse the language. It has been an enormous curler coaster and I’ve simply trusted myself the entire complete time, I’ve simply recognized I had it inside me, and that failure was by no means an choice for me. I knew I might make it.”
READ MORE: Amy Hunt’s coaching
She added: “Even earlier than this race, I visualised it so many occasions and to truly lastly do it’s so extremely surreal. That is why I screamed.”
Did she ever think about quitting? “I knew I had one thing was inside me. I feel operating so quick, so younger, I am operating quicker than any of those women have run aged 17.
“I knew I used to be too proficient for it to go to waste. I had a fireplace. I had a lightweight inside me that simply mentioned, it is value it. Preserve going.”
The ultimate phrase ought to go to Jefferson-Wood, although: “It was very particular. Coming into the World Champs I knew there was a excessive likelihood to finish the double. I managed to do precisely what I got down to do as effectively, so I’m actually completely happy.”
