The British sprinter Louie Hinchliffe became the first European to win the men’s 100 metres at the United States’ National Collegiate Athletic Association Championships, darting the distance in a stunning 9.95 seconds on June 8.
(Watch the 100-metre final on YouTube.)
Putting the wind behind him, helping him break the 10-second barrier, was a legend: the nine-time Olympic champion Carl Lewis.
Hinchliffe says a WhatsApp message changed his life – a message where he asked Lewis, “Can you fix me?”
They were complete strangers – and yet Lewis responded to his plea.
Hinchliffe, a 21-year-old from Sheffield, looked back on his career after winning the 100 metres at the US collegiate championships in Eugene, Oregon.
“I gave it everything, it’s what I’ve been working for the whole year,” he said after a late burst helped him win the race in a time that makes him the sixth-quickest Briton ever.
But he wasn’t an early starter as a sprinter.
He wanted to be a professional golfer till the age of 16, the Observer reports.
Then, when he went to the University of Lancaster to study management and IT at 18, he spent more time partying than running as there was no track nearby. “I would get on a bus twice a week, 30 minutes away, to train,” he said. “I didn’t have any support, I was just a regular student.”
However, he won the English national 100 metres title in 2022 and spent the 2023 season with Washington State University as a freshman on a sports scholarship.
Then he got lucky after August last year. He found the phone number of Lewis, the 1984 and 1988 Olympic 100 metres champion and a coach at the University of Houston.
“I had a couple of problems with my hamstring and my back,” said Hinchliffe. “And I didn’t have much guidance. He was like: ‘Let’s talk.’ We had a long phone call and he saw a lot of potential in me,” he added, recalling the conversation with Lewis.
Hinchliffe transferred to Houston to study and train under Lewis. And the training has paid off: he has shattered the 10-second barrier.
Now he is focused on the Olympics.
He wants to prepare for the UK championships later this month in Manchester, which will act as the British trials for the Paris Games “I’ve got to forget about this, because the main job is to get to the Olympics,” he says.
Lewis is convinced Hinchliffe will make it, “He’s going to be a great,” he says. “He’s going to be in the Olympics this year, I know he will make that team.”
Source: The Observer