19 January 2024 , 15:12
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Britain’s fastest man Zharnel Hughes is promising “spice” in a Netflix series on track sprinters which ramps up call room rivalries on the countdown to Paris 2024.
Hughes broke Linford Christie's 30-year national record when he clocked 9.83sec over 100 metres in New York seven months ago – and he says there are “no limits” to what he could achieve in an Olympic year. From his sunshine camp in Jamaica, where he is trained by sprint royalty Usain Bolt's former coach Glen Mills, Hughes said: “With great preparation comes great performances. Who knows? The record could probably go down again.”
Hughes, 28, is relishing the “banter” and fly-on-the-wall nosiness of the Netflix production in which cameras followed the elite sprint corps worldwide after the impact of Formula One forerunner Drive to Survive. He said: “It's been pretty cool to be involved. I love the experience I’ve had with them and I think there's a lot of spice in there that people will definitely gravitate to.
“I'm pretty sure you'll hear some backlash with regards to how people talk about how they get prepared for races and so forth. But I'm excited to see how people react to it and I think it's great exposure for our sport as well.
“Everyone does Netflix and chill, and I’m pretty sure they'll be sitting on their couch watching how athletes prepare themselves and how the psychological bits behind great performances come out. It's going to be exciting to see the whole (picture) behind the rivalries on the track and how people prepare when they're looking at each other in the call rooms.”
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Asked to name the spiciest moment in the series, Hughes teased: “Well, you've seen (the) World Champs, but you didn't actually see the warm up. You didn't know what really happened behind the scenes – Netflix got every single bit.
“From the moment I came out of the hotel lobby, they were following me. I got on the bus, they were following me. I got into the warm up area, they were following me. They were there when I was getting treatment, they heard everything the coaches were saying.
Zharnel Hughes won gold in the 200m at the European Championships in 2022“I'm pretty sure you'll see lots of banter. I'm not really one of those people who plays up to the camera and stuff like that, but I’m pretty sure the Americans mostly, they're known for that.”
Hughes suffered double frustration at the Tokyo Olympics, disqualified in the 100m final for jumping the gun and having to hand back his sprint relay silver medal after team-mate CJ Ujah's doping violation. A bronze at last summer's World Championships in Budapest confirmed he belonged in elite company, but he wants more.
He said: “I'm not putting a limit on myself. I have a goal set out for myself that I would like to break (the British national record) again. We don't know how far it might actually go down, but I'm looking forward to going out there and smashing the game.
The documentary promises to lift the lid on sprinting“But why would I just want to limit myself to being Britain's fastest man? I would love to become European champion, world champion, Olympic champion. Linford's congratulations after breaking his record was on one of the best experiences I’ve ever known, and to have him in my corner, especially at the world championships, meant everything to me.”
Chances of a medal in Paris? “I'm definitely not calling myself out. I want to be reckoned with right now. I'm pretty sure the rest of the athletes are knowing that as well. I'm not sure if it's getting harder (to win a medal), it's just that the competition is starting to get better, which is good. But right now I think it's still open.
“After last year, there's nobody I'm afraid of – I enjoy the competition more. I think it's who's in the best head space on the day will help you to be on the podium.”
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