by Stuart WeirThe gold medal performance by Jeremiah Azu of Team GB has many stories. Jeremiah is a new father, he is also a new European champion and now, a World Indoor Champion. This story on Jeremiah was written by Stuart Weir, the RunBlogRun senior writer for Europe!
Jeremiah Azu World Indoor sprint champion.
Two weeks ago Jeremiah Azu won the 60m in the European Indoors. Now he has just gone and won the World Indoors. Yes, you can say that lots of the world’s top athletes were not there but Azu can only beat those who were there and he did just that! The final result was:
1 Jeremiah Azu 6.49
2 Lachlan Kennedy 6.50
3 Akani Simbine 6.54
He had previously run 6.53 and 6.52 to reach the final. Azu, who had an injury last month and was close to cancelling his indoor season said: “My indoor season didn’t look like it was going to happen, so standing here as World and European champion in the same season, is amazing. I had a coaching change, a couple of injuries that I dealt with. But you know, that’s life. Everyone’s going through stuff. It’s not a sob story, it’s just the reality of life, and you’ve just got to keep moving. I had planned some races, but pulled out of a few because of injury. Four weeks ago I didn’t even look like I was going to have an indoor season. It was a burst of emotion. I feel like I’ve faced a lot during the last couple of months, a lot of life changes, so to know that everything is still going the right way is important for me.
“That scream after the race was just that, a relief, a scream of joy, a scream of happiness and emotion. I was a bit emotional before the race with my coach. I was telling her, I’m so grateful that she helps me to believe in myself again, and that was just everything coming out. Moving back to Wales has been huge. It’s the reason I’m here right now. It’s allowed my [Christian] faith to grow. I’m back with the coach who started me off in this sport, and I’m sure we can go around the world and continue to be great. GB Team captain Neil Gourley’s speech was so amazing. It’s so nice to hear that my teammates believe in me. The work doesn’t stop. Just going to get ready for summer. The calendar keeps going. So I still need to train. I still need to be in the best shape possible so I can hopefully come back in the summer, be back in Asia, be back in Tokyo, and who knows what can happen.”
Azu left his Welsh base and coach, Helen James, in 2022 to spend the next two years om Padua, Italy with Marco Airale, whose group included Adam Gemili, Ama Pipi, Darryl Neita, Reece Prescod and Amy Hunt. Last fall he – and most of the others – left Italy with Azu returning to Helen James in Cardiff. Speaking to GB athletics writers from Nanjing a few days ago Azu spoke warmly of his time in Italy: “I gained an insight into other aspects of track and field. I gained an understanding of things other people were doing and that I wasn’t doing. I think I learned a lot about myself. I gained a lot of independence off the track as well. I probably would never have moved away from home for any other reason, so I think it allowed me to gain a lot of life experience which translates into track maturity”.
He said that there was no one reason for leaving Italy to return home but mentioned family and coaching reasons. He added: “I was planning to stay there and have the family come out, but eventually things just didn’t end up going that way for whatever reason. I am grateful to all the people that helped me, all the experience I gained, but ultimately that chapter closed and I’m just ready to start again where I started my athletics career. I think this last couple of weeks have definitely given me the confidence I’ve made the right decision”.
Asked if he saw the indoor season as an end in itself or a preparation for the summer, he sidestepped the question: “I don’t really see it as anything special or anything different. I think I take it for what it is – an opportunity to see where you are in training, to challenge yourself. So I just treat the indoors for what it is – a time to run, a time to earn money, do championships. There’s so many different things that can come from indoors and right now for me, I think we ran into it with an open mind frame. I moved home, back with Helen and I had some races”. He added that he enjoyed being back in his church in Cardiff.
When I asked him what he thought his best distance was, again he gave a thoughtful answer: “Honestly I think that’s quite hard to answer because I wouldn’t want to put myself in a category to think I can’t do anything else. This year, we’re going to really try and focus on the 200 because over the last two years, I didn’t run it too much. I think that will definitely help my 100, but for me there’s no perfect distance. I love them all. I’m just enjoying stepping on the track It’s about just getting out and competing. I wouldn’t say there’s a perfect distance for me or a favorite distance. I like elements of each one. I mean the 60 is over so quick. The 100 requires a bit more patience and the 200 requires a lot of finesse. You can lose a lot of time on that curve, so it’s learning how to run the curve properly and chopping down those times. There are elements of all of them that I love. But for me there’s no favorite or best distance for me”.
Becoming European and World Champion, Jeremiah has taken a real step forward and it will be exciting to see where the journey takes him.
