Louie Hinchliffe – the unlikely sprint star of the British athletics team

07/02/2024 06:58 AM

Stocky fast-finishing 100m man with a mullet haircut and safety pins in his ears is merely getting into his stride, says his coach Carl Lewis

Along with Phoebe Gill, Louie Hinchliffe has emerged as the British breakthrough star of this Olympic summer. From relative obscurity he has smashed the 10-second barrier for 100m, won the British Olympic trial and is now eyeing up medals in the individual sprint and relay in Paris.

He is not a conventional looking elite sprinter, though. Not many leading 100m men have a mullet haircut for starters. Even fewer wear safety pins as ear-rings, as he did in Manchester on Saturday. His mum is from the Philippines and his dad from Rotherham. Short, stocky and with a pronounced forward lean, he oozes power in the closing stages of his race.

"He's a pretty low-key guy and unassuming, which is a good thing," says Carl Lewis, who coaches the 21-year-old at the University of Houston. "He has a lot of unique qualities. He's a good-looking kid. He has a different look, he's shorter, stockier, and has long hair."

Lewis, who turned 63 on Monday (July 1), is no stranger to Britain. As an athlete he raced in Europe and Britain regularly and is familiar with 'AW'. I first met him at a Nike shoe launch in Portland around 20 years ago and when I deliberately used the term 'track and field' – due to it being more common in the United States – he realised I was British and corrected me. “You can call it athletics,” he smiled.

His first conversation with Hinchliffe was more interesting, though. When the Sheffield sprinter moved to Houston, Lewis told him he could help get him into his Olympic team.

In Manchester on Saturday, the nine-time Olympic champion was asked whether he genuinely believed that."Absolutely not," he laughed. "Are you f***ing kidding me? But I did believe he could run 10.0 and I thought that could be enough to get a relay spot."

Lewis believes Hinchliffe should run the anchor for Britain in the Olympic 4x100m. He is also, incidentally, a fan of Zharnel Hughes, believing the UK record-holder would have won Olympic gold in Tokyo if he hadn't false started.

He also accepts Hinchliffe is not the finished article yet. "He's run 9.95. He can run faster. He still has some work to do and he's only been here nine months, but I think he can definitely be one of the best that Britain has ever had. The sky's the limit."

Hinchliffe realises he's in the best hands possible. “He has made a massive difference,” said the Sheffield man. “He’s a nine-time Olympic champion, you just have to be an open book and take in all the advice he gives you. He’ll make jokes and he’ll also be hard on you when something isn’t right. He keeps me on the right track.”

Lewis is also at a stage in his life where he doesn't particularly crave success. He doesn't waste time scouting and hunting around for raw talent from outside the United States either.

"Every athlete has sought out our programme," he says of his set-up in Houston. "We want a programme where the people want to be there.

"I'm not trying to convince anyone. It's not my job to get Louie so I can be seen as a great coach. Shit, I have nine gold medals and I'm rich. That gives me the freedom to go out and say what the hell I want and do what I want. I don't need the attention."

This unlikely partnership is fast becoming one of the athletics stories of the year.

Jake Wightman or Elliot Giles? Who goes to Paris in the 800m?

When Seb Coe, Steve Ovett, Steve Cram and Peter Elliott were battling for places in the Olympic teams, I imagine selectors sat around in a smoke-filled room using intuition, raw instincts and a dash of logic. Increasingly, athletes must tick certain ‘criteria’ in order to be picked. In many cases a computer could pick the team. All this is largely driven by a fear of being sued, of course.

When it comes to the final place in the GB team for the men's 800m at the Paris Games, though, selectors have been faced with an old-fashioned dilemma. Do they go with Elliot Giles or Jake Wightman?

Giles fell in the trials with 50 metres to go when challenging for one of the top two positions. After clashing with Josh Kerr, who was coming up on his inside, both men hit the floor leaving Ben Pattison to win from Max Burgin with Finlay Mclear, who does not have the qualifying mark, third.

Giles’ PB is 1:43.63 (set indoors in 2021) and he's run 1:44.46 this summer although he had a disappointing European Championships in Rome, finishing seventh in the final. Wightman on the other hand famously won the world 1500m title in Eugene in 2022 and missed last year with injury but tops the UK 800m rankings this year with 1:44.10 (his PB is 1:43.65). He missed the trials, however, with a minor calf injury after showing an encouraging return to form in recent months.

Who would you pick? For me, it's too close to call and I don't envy the selectors having to make thec call. Maybe computer-generated decisions are the best after all.

It must be Olympic summer as athletics documentaries premiere

Get the popcorn ready as a brilliant new documentary hits the screens this week. I'm not talking about the Netflix one either, nor the upcoming programmes on Daley Thompson and Linford Christie, but instead a film about masters athletics which his set to premiere on Friday (July 5).

Younger – Looking Forward to Getting Older is directed by Danielle Sellwood in association with photographer Alex Rotas and follows the lives of four extraordinary women in their 60s, 70s, and 80s as they train and compete masters championships.

Keep an eye on the AW channels for a full review in coming days.

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