Defeating Grand Slam Track Champion, Olympic Bronze Medalist Opens Up on Season’s First 200m Win

GC Foster Classic – 2nd with 20.41. Grand Slam Track Kingston- 2nd once again with a slightly improved time of 20.37. Miami Grand Slam Track was quite the worst of his 2025 season yet, as that man ran past the finish line in 20.13, now that might be an improvement in time, but he still finished third. NO 200m wins yet. So when this Paris Olympics bronze medalist took his mark in the 200m at the 2025 Adidas Atlanta games, he had only one goal in his eyes– to win. And so he did, racing past Jereem Richards and Wayde van Niekerk, leaving behind nothing but dust in a time of 19.55s (2.2). Now, when you win the first, you’re bound to feel a lot of things. What did he have to say?

Zharnel Hughes was gassing when he entered the mixed zone, so the media’s first instinct was to tell him to catch a break. But then came the big question: how did he feel? “How did it feel? Long,” Hughes chuckled, “Long, but I was kind of worried because before the start of the race, I was starting to cramp in my left quad, so I was kind of like, ah, is this going to be okay? But I just tried to stay relaxed as much as possible.” In the post-race interview, he was questioned whether his past back injuries had been a problem. 

Back problems have been a persistent issue for the man. In 2015, during the World Championships 200m final, Hughes finished fifth but believed he could have broken the 20-second barrier if not for back issues that hampered his performance in the last 50 meters. This time? He said, “This year, I’m just trying to stay as healthy as possible and give it my best each time I go to compete.” Answering the question of how the best of his ability helped with a straight start to the race, the track and field athlete said that he has done it before, so he was aware of the marking and stuff.

He said, he “kind of know where to kick,  so I just executed that and trust myself to stay relaxed.” Zharnel Hughes has excelled in straight-start races, notably breaking the British record with 9.83s in 100m at the 2023 NYC Grand Prix. What of the time that he clocked – a sub-20? Well, he didn’t notice, citing, “I didn’t know. Karim told me. He told me 19.5, I turned around and said, What? So that’s crazy.” But then, like a reporter pointed out, the wind was 2.2, so for it to count, we are about 0.2ms ahead. 

Now, one media person turned the wheel of time to 2019, citing that as one of his best seasons. His question? What would he have to do to go back to that kind of form? The Olympian answer? – “Just keep showing up, competing at the best of my ability, showing up with the good guys, and, I mean, competing early in the season already with the Grand Slam track. So that’s helped me a lot”. In 2019, Zharnel Hughes won both the British 100m and 200m titles and anchored Team GB to 4x100m silver at the World Championships, setting a European record of 37.36 seconds, so yes, 2019 was quite the season for the Olympics bronze medalist.

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