Latest news with #JeremiahAzu
New York Times
30-03-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Jeremiah Azu: My Golds In My Words
Even as a European champion, Jeremiah Azu is relatively unknown. In the pre-event press conference for the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China, earlier this month, one reporter asked Azu if he was indeed the 'fastest accountant in the world'. They had confused him with fellow British sprinter Eugene Amo-Dadzie. 'Wrong guy,' Azu responded. Advertisement The 23-year-old arrived in Nanjing in fine form. He retained his British 60m title at the end of February, equalling a personal best of 6.56s and winning with daylight between him and the rest despite the short distance of the race. Azu hit the crashmat at the end of the straight so hard, he bounced off it and fell over. Two weeks later, he cracked the 6.5s barrier for the first time, adding the European 60m title with a 6.49s in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. His performance there was a masterclass in navigating through the rounds, going quicker in the semi-finals than in the heats and then delivering a personal best in the final. He then ran an identical time in the World Championships final, winning by one-tenth of a second, ahead of talented Australian youngster Lachlan Kennedy (who, with an outdoor 60m PB and national record 6.43s from January, had the world-leading time coming into the competition). It made Azu the first male Briton to be 60m world champion since Richard Kilty in 2014, and he is the fifth athlete this millennium to hold the European and world 60m titles simultaneously — three of the other four are also Brits: Kilty, Dwain Chambers and Jason Gardener, plus Lamont Marcell Jacobs of Italy. A week after he took the world title, Azu sat down with The Athletic at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham, as part of a media event for the 2026 European Championships being staged at that venue, which were then 500 days out. It was full-circle for Azu to be back there with European and world titles to his name. In 2022, at the Commonwealth Games, the Welshman raced his first senior international final at that stadium, coming fifth in the 100m. That a 20-minute conversation stems from two minutes of video — showing every angle of the European and world finals — shows Azu is as passionate and attentive to performance details as he is fast. This is the story of Jeremiah Azu's gold medals, in his own words. He has not, as I suggest, had videos of these finals on a loop to revel in glory. Azu has rewatched them, but 'more just to see where I could have gone better'. He describes that European final as 'probably one of my cleanest races ever, a lot cleaner than World Champs — that one was a bit messy, a lot of head movement'. Advertisement The Worlds were his third Championships in the space of a month, so the mental and physical fatigue of going through the rounds were compounding. 'It's hard to say if I could have gone faster if it was cleaner, but I think we had between 6.45 and 6.47 as times I could have run. It's not a million miles off,' he says. 'My training is very much set up to run faster at the championships. I'm always going to have that bit more in the final. Everyone's got crazy-fast training PBs, but when it actually matters, there's pressure. I kind of enjoy it. Sometimes I think to myself, 'Can you actually handle this?'. I know I can.' The 'bit more' that Azu references is not just about conditioning, but also the mechanics of finishing. Athletes are measured from the point their torso crosses the finish line, so if form degrades and their dip comes too soon, they can end up with a different colour medal — or none at all. 'That's the difference,' he says, rewatching the World Championship final, pointing out that Kennedy 'might be in front of me' with 10m to go. 'It's hard to tell.' The man himself 🤩 Jeremiah Azu everybody 👏👏@ — Team GB (@TeamGB) March 21, 2025 'You can only dip on your last step, any more than that and you slow down,' he explains. 'I'm still upright and then I've gone, one step, and it's taken me through the line. I've always been good at timing my dips, I've never really trained it.' Composure mattered, as did tactics, which might sound surprising for a race that lasts less than seven seconds. Azu says he comes off 'autopilot' halfway through. 'Once I get out of the drive (phase, which is when the athlete is accelerating to top speed), that's when I become aware. Even if I try and think back, it's just blank, and then I wake up at 30 metres.' Advertisement By then, 'it's just staying tall, making sure my feet are landing underneath me and not panicking'. He knew that Eloy Benitez, the Puerto Rican inside him in lane five, was likely to DNF. He had been stretching his calf beforehand in the call room and asked Azu to share some Tiger Balm pain reliever, which he did. 'I knew that gap was going to appear, and I knew these two (in the outside lanes to his right) had run super-fast in the first two rounds, so they had nothing left. I was expecting to be by myself. At this point (45m in), I couldn't really see anyone (to my left), because they were all in a line.' The other two medallists came from lanes two and three, to Azu's left, with 21-year-old Kennedy taking silver and South Africa's Akani Simbine, 31, finally getting an individual global medal, the bronze. 'I just knew not to panic because the line's going to come to me. I don't need to try to get to the line.' Azu says. 'That's what took the win, we're talking about the width of paper.' Did he have an idea crossing the line how fast he had gone? 'I had a glance at the clock just before I hit the pads, and I saw 6.50 and was like, 'Nah, it's quicker than that'. Obviously, 6.49 and 6.50 are the same thing, but you just want to go under it. 'It's funny, because I was more sure that I'd won this than the Europeans, and the Europeans was a bigger gap (to second place).' Azu thought he had been run out of the gold medal in that European final by the fast-finishing Henrik Larsson, who was to his right. Larsson finished second, in a Swedish record 6.52s, but was three-tenths back on Azu. As a smaller sprinter — think Christian Coleman, Nesta Carter or Su Bingtian — Azu's blockwork is naturally superior to his top-end mechanics. He can turn his feet over quicker because shorter limbs move faster. 'My biggest area to improve is my transition phase,' he says, after rewatching both finals. Advertisement 'It's getting better, so it's working out how to go from staying on the ground (when accelerating) to coming off the ground,' he explains. This is the middle section of the race — from 30m onwards — when athletes hit top speed before starting to decelerate. 'There's a certain position you need to be in, because you can't just come straight up — you will lose all that momentum,' Azu says. 'It's kind of like an aeroplane take-off. Once I'm in my max speed, it's clockwork. After 40, 50 metres, you can't just go quicker, you've got to maintain.' The real magic of Azu's races is not the finish but the start. He is talkative to the TV cameras, though not quite to the extent of 2024 Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles of the United States, because it helps settle nerves. 'If people watched me at training, they'd see the same thing,' Azu explains. 'So why would I come here and do anything different? 'On the line, it just comes to me. I don't like to pre-rehearse stuff. I'm not thinking about what I'm about to do, because you can get caught up in thinking, 'This is a European final/a World final, I've dreamed about this moment'. I'm just not there (mentally) for that moment, until they say 'Set'. Especially with the crowd. You can get overwhelmed if you think about them.' A post shared by AZOOM (@jeremiahazu) He cites the 100m at the London Diamond League last July as an example of the occasion getting to him: 'I was like, 'I need to do this for the fans'. I ran OK, but (with) way too much pressure, and I didn't need that — there's no point adding that. It's stuff you learn from.' He came seventh out of eight in a stacked field that day, running 10.08 seconds in a race where five athletes went sub-10s and three broke the 9.9 barrier. Azu's reaction times are phenomenal. At those World Championships, he was the fastest to react of 58 athletes in the heats (0.111 seconds), the second-fastest of 24 in the semis (0.129), and only Kennedy got out the blocks quicker in the final. Advertisement 'Before every session, we do three thirties (30m sprints) with reaction,' Azu says. 'So we do train it, unintentionally, because every time I race I'm going to have to react (to the gun). It's a massive part of it.' He is often the last to rise into the set position before the race begins but one of the best over the first three steps. 'I almost feel like I'm hovering over the floor. It's such a specific movement,' he elaborates. Azu scrubs through a reverse, slow-motion angle of the European indoors' final as he explains the next part. 'I try to keep my feet as low as possible for the first three steps. After that, it's really just hitting the floor as hard as possible.' Here he works on being 'aggressive. In the acceleration (phase), you need to be on the ground. If you're not, you are not going fast.' Power can only be generated when the athlete's feet are on the floor, so faster steps are better. Part of the challenge in Nanjing was the track, which Azu said felt 'very new. So I couldn't start the way I normally do. Normally, my feet are almost touching the floor, but I had to lift, because, in the heats, I started and I got caught up on the track because it's so grippy. So it was slowing me down.' There is a lazy narrative to weave about a redemption arc after Azu false-started in the 100m heats at the Olympics in Paris last August. It meant he lost the chance to shine individually on that stage, but he quickly put that behind him to lead off the 4x100m relay heats and final. Great Britain finished third, their first men's medal in that event for 24 years. Azu was one of only 13 British athletes sent to Nanjing (with no relay squads) — a much smaller track-and-field team than the 63 who went to Paris. This is natural for an indoor World Championship, which coaches see more as a launchpad for the outdoor season than an event to peak for, on the other side of the globe. Consequently, the typical American and Jamaican big hitters were also absent, and Azu seized the opportunity. Neil Gourley, who won 1,500m silver at the World Indoors, was Team GB captain, and used Azu as a source of inspiration. 'He swore a lot,' Azu jokes. 'He mentioned me in the speech and said, 'I'm sure you woke up on that day (European 60m final) and thought, 'let's do something extraordinary'.' 'To have your teammates believing in you, saying that I'm going to win to the press, it allows you to win and fills you with confidence.' I tell Azu that I always dislike media folk asking athletes 'What's next?' after they win a medal — let alone two titles — and he laughs, more than prepared to speak about his ambitions to get close to Zharnel Hughes' 100m British record of 9.83 seconds. Azu left Marco Airale's Italy-based training group last December and went back to Helen James, who coached him in Cardiff during his teenage years. Advertisement 'We've still got loads of time to work on stuff,' he says. 'It's even more exciting, because I've run fast in 100m the last couple of years (he became the first Welshman to run a wind-legal sub-10 seconds 100m last May), but my 60m and 200m just didn't improve. 'So to come back (this year) and instantly run a 60m PB, it just shows that we're making the right decisions.' Azu says the sub 9.9s barrier for 100m is 'where we want to be. There, you're really competitive. I know I'm capable, I want to be in that mix. If you can run 6.5s (for 60m) you can run 9.9s (for 100m),' he adds, explaining sprinting exchange rates. 'If you can run 6.4s, you can run 9.8s. In the summer, my 60m will be better because I'm not trying to get to 60m.' The target is to be splitting under 6.45s for 60m en route to a fast 100m — that quality of start would put him in medal contention. 'All I want to do is be consistent,' Azu says, believing that, if he consistently breaks 10s this outdoor season, 'I know my one-off is going to be 9.8 and who knows what the one-off of that could be. 'It'll be exciting this summer.'
Saba Yemen
22-03-2025
- Sport
- Saba Yemen
Welshman Jeremiah Azu Wins Gold in 60m at World Indoor Athletics Championships
Beijing - Saba: Welsh sprinter Jeremiah Azu clinched the gold medal in the men's 60-meter race on the first day of the World Indoor Athletics Championships currently being held in Nanjing, China. Azu recorded a time of 6.49 seconds, while Australia's Lachlan Kennedy secured the silver medal. The 23-year-old Welsh sprinter achieved a personal best, maintaining an undefeated record this year. He edged out Kennedy by a mere hundredth of a second in an exhilarating final that saw their American rival, Ronnie Baker, suffer a hamstring injury just before the finish line. South African sprinter Akani Simbine took the bronze medal with a time of 6.54 seconds after another top contender, Puerto Rico's Eloy Bennett, stumbled early in the race and was unable to continue. This title marks Azu's second major international victory, following his first win in the same event at the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, earlier this month. Whatsapp Telegram Email Print more of (Press)
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Speedster Kennedy: 'World medal just the start for me'
Even just "a bit upset" about the colour of his medal, Lachlan Kennedy is adamant that his landmark world indoor championships silver will be just the launchpad for his rocket sprint rise in 2025. Kennedy was pipped by an agonising one-hundredth of a second in the 60 metres final in Nanjing on Friday, but after winning the first ever medal by an Australian in the blue riband event of the short-track championships, the 21-year-old declared it was just the start for him and the country's new legion of speedsters. Even if he's been eclipsed by some of the feats of the phenomenal 17-year-old Gout Gout, then Kennedy's breakthrough, along with Torrie Lewis's lightning progress in women's track, has only shown that Australia could soon offer a triple threat in global sprinting. Or the way Kennedy put it at the Chinese venue: "I will keep showing them that (Australian) athletics is no joke. "Just because we're so far away from everyone doesn't mean we ain't got what it takes to compete with the world's best!" The quicksilver Queenslander had already shown in Canberra in January that he's a serious talent, clocking 6.43sec in an outdoor meet - even if helped by a 1.6m following wind - to become the 10th fastest man in history over 60m. But this Nanjing performance was another step up on his indoor debut, with the unfamiliarity of his surrounds not fazing him as he clocked 6.50sec in the final, the quickest ever by an Australian indoors, only to be edged out by Briton Jeremiah Azu. Look at that roar 🦁Jeremiah Azu storms to 6.49 to claim the world indoor title in the men's 60m at the #WorldIndoorChamps💨 — World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) March 21, 2025 "I know I can do so much more, this is only the beginning. I'm a bit upset I didn't win, but I definitely got the next best thing," Kennedy said. "Racing three events, with eight hours in between them was weird for me, but in the heat I stumbled and almost fell over after crossing the finish line. "When I got to the semis, I was hesitant and tensed up a bit and then I thought, if I fall over in the final, I fall over - and I just went for it." Kennedy's time eclipsed Matt Shirvington's national indoor best of 6.52 at the same event in Maebashi, Japan, in 1999, and could be the springboard for a special campaign in which he has Patrick Johnson's national 100m record of 9.93sec in his sights. "It's already been really a good season, so I hope I can carry this momentum towards Japan for the World Championships, but before that, I'm gonna do nationals back in Australia and completely focus on the 100m now," he explained. "Hopefully I can go sub-10 seconds soon. I definitely want to keep doing this for as long as I can, and be a role model for younger athletes coming through. "Heck, yeah, this season has been my favourite so far. There's so much more to do and more to come. "I definitely want to go sub-10 in the 100m, that's my goal for this season, and then I want to break the Australian record. It's well within reach for me to do at the Maurie Plant Meet (on March 29 in Melbourne) or Nationals (on April 10-13 in Perth).
Observer
21-03-2025
- Sport
- Observer
Britain's Azu storms to world indoor 60m gold
NANJING, China: Britain's Jeremiah Azu added the world indoor 60m crown to his European title as he outsprinted Australian Lachlan Kennedy in Nanjing on Friday. Azu exploded out of the blocks to clock a personal best of 6.49 seconds, edging Kennedy — who had set the world lead of 6.43sec in Canberra in January — by one hundredth of a second at Nanjing's Cube stadium. The 23-year-old Welshman roared as his name came up as the winner after Kennedy's was first shown. "It was a burst of emotion," said Azu, who moved back to Wales to work once more with his first coach Helen James in December. "I feel like I've faced a lot during the last couple of months, had a lot of life changes, so to know that everything's still going the right way is important for me." There was a first global individual medal, bronze, for South African Akani Simbine, who has finished fifth, fourth and fifth in the last three Olympic 100m races. Azu's performance topped the first day of competition in the Chinese city where the 12 medals on offer were won by athletes representing 12 different nations. South Korea's exuberant Woo Sangh-yeok won the men's high jump final with 2.31m for a second world indoor gold after Belgrade in 2022. Britain's Jeremiah Azu celebrates winning the Men's 60m Final with second placed Australia's Lachlan Kennedy and third placed South Africa's Akani Simbine Defending champion and Olympic gold medallist Hamish Kerr of New Zealand claimed silver with 2.28m ahead of Jamaica's Raymond Richards on countback. Woo's winning mark was the lowest ever in the world indoors and far from the championship record of 2.43m set by Cuban Javier Sotomayor in Budapest back in 1989. "It's because of my experience at the Paris Olympics last year that I'm able to win this gold medal today," said the South Korean, in reference to his disappointing seventh-placed finish in the French capital. Canadian Sarah Mitton defended her shot put title with a best of 20.48 metres on her sixth and final attempt, having led from her second. Finland's Saga Vanninen celebrates on the podium after winning the Women's Pentathlon with silver medallist Ireland's Kate O'Connor and bronze medallist Taliyah Brooks of the U.S. Newly-crowned European indoor champion Jessica Schilder of the Netherlands took silver with 20.07m, a centimetre ahead of Team USA's two-time defending world outdoor champion Chase Jackson. 2021 Olympic champion Gong Lijiao, perhaps the host nation's best chance of a medal, came fifth after failing to get past 19m. There was history in the women's pentathlon as European indoor champion Saga Vanninen improved on her silver from Glasgow last year to become the first Finnish woman to win a senior global combined-events title. Vanninen ran 8.30sec over the opening 60m hurdles, before managing bests of 1.81m in the high jump, 15.81m in the shot put and 6.37m in the long jump. 'STAY OUT OF TROUBLE' She wrapped up the gruelling one-day event with 2:15.28 in the 800m to finish on 4,821 points, with Ireland's Kate O'Connor taking silver (4,742), in a first for her country, and American Taliyah Brooks bronze (4,669). The first gold of the championships went to Italy when Cuban-born Andy Diaz Hernandez bounded out to a dominant 17.80m in the men's triple jump in the morning session. Canada's Sarah Mitton celebrates winning the Women's Shot Put Final. China's Zhu Yaming delighted the home crowd by claiming silver with a best of 17.33m, with defending champion Hugues Fabrice Zango of Burkina Faso upgraded to bronze after Brazil's Almir dos Santos was ruled to have worn non-regulation spikes. Norwegian prodigy Jakob Ingebrigtsen kept his tilt at a world indoor double on track by qualifying for Sunday's 1500m final after winning his heat in 3:39.80. Before that, he has a date in the final of the 3,000m on Saturday in his bid to repeat his double European gold in China. "I am glad to get to the final," said Ingebrigtsen. "I'm trying to stay out of trouble and reduce the risk of falling, so I'm very happy with the result and looking forward to tomorrow too to fight for the medals. "I think it's going to be fun. Until this evening, I was all the way preparing for as much as possible despite the jetlag before going on to the track, but for the world championships, it's definitely worth it." — AFP
Telegraph
21-03-2025
- Sport
- Telegraph
Great Britain's Jeremiah Azu wins 60m gold at World Indoor Championships
Welshman Jeremiah Azu fought back tears after claiming 60 metres gold in a personal best 6.49 seconds on the first day of the World Athletics Indoor Championships in China. Azu beat Australian Lachlan Kennedy by a hundreth of a second to claim his second major senior international title after winning his maiden crown over the same distance at the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn earlier this month. It caps off a remarkable month for the 23-year-old, who welcomed his first child – a son – one week before the trip to the Netherlands, and just a few months ago left his former training set-up in Italy to return to former coach Helen James in Wales. What a moment for @Jeremiah_Azu! 🤩 He's secured 60m gold at the World Athletics Indoor Championships for the first global title of his career 🥇🙌 #BBCAthletics — BBC Sport (@BBCSport) March 21, 2025 'I'm just excited for the future,' Azu told the BBC. 'Like I said at the Europeans, I want to take over the world, so it's just the start of our journey. 'I've been back with [Helen] for three months now. Imagine what six months looks like, imagine what four or five years looks like. The plan is just to keep on winning. 'It gives me massive, massive confidence. I'm just excited now, I want to get out there and race. 'The sky's the limit, as people say, and I don't think the sky's the limit. There's way more than that.' Azu dedicated the victory to James, adding: 'The last few years have been very difficult for me. I've been thinking about it, reflecting, and it's so important to surround yourself with people who believe in you.' Recently-crowned European 60 metres bronze medallist Andy Robertson did not make it through to the final after he pulled up in the morning's heats. Hunter-Bell targeting medal in 1500m final Olympic bronze medallist Georgia Hunter Bell, whose own European campaign was curtailed by an ear infection, qualified for Sunday's 1500 metres final, but compatriot Revee Walcott-Nolan missed out. Scottish runner Neil Gourley reached the men's 1500 metres final after finishing first in his heat in 3:36.60, while Adam Fogg – needing to place top two – finished sixth in his heat. Amber Anning – who claimed Olympic bronze medals with the women's and mixed 4x400 metres relays in Paris – stormed through to the women's 400 metres final in 50.79 and will go for gold at 12:44pm GMT on Saturday. Reigning world indoor pole vault champion Molly Caudery gets her title defence underway at 2:10am GMT, just over an hour before Amy Hunt kicks off her campaign to qualify for the women's 60 metres final.
