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Zharnel Hughes takes on Noah Lyles at London Diamond League before Paris 2024 showdown

Zharnel Hughes takes on Noah Lyles at London Diamond League before Paris 2024 showdown

The pair will also have British 100m champion Louie Hinchliffe and compatriot Jeremiah Azu, Jamaicans Yohan Blake and Ackeem Blake, and South African Akani Simbine for company in a fascinating pre-Games showdown.

However, Hughes will be one of only two athletes on the start line yet to run under 10 seconds this year – which has been disrupted by injury, as he sustained a grade one hamstring tear at the start of June.

This season started promisingly when he clocked 19.96 seconds to secure a 200m victory over former world 100m champion Fred Kerley in Jamaica in May.

But he was seen limping away from the track following a 10.09sec performance in Kingston, where he is based and trains under Glen Mills, the former coach of eight-time Olympic champion Usain Bolt and two-time 100m runner-up Yohan Blake.

Denied the chance to compete at the European Championships and defend his British titles, Hughes says he not only recovered quickly from the setback but returned an improved athlete after a meticulous effort to strengthen his entire body.

“By the end of my first week back in training, we were already sprinting and my coach noticed something had changed. My technique looked better, I looked stronger,” Hughes says.

“Coach said: ‘I don’t think the injury did too much – it actually seems like you got better.'”

Hughes, who also took down Linford Christie’s 30-year British 100m mark in 9.83secs last year, is counting down the days until he gets the opportunity for the redemption he has wanted since that fateful night in Tokyo three years ago.

When Hughes suffered calf cramp as he set himself in his starting block moments before the last Olympic 100m final, he knew instantly that it was over.

Accepting the red card shown to him for his false start with a nod of resignation, his disqualification official, the Anguilla-born Briton was escorted away from the track, his dreams in tatters.

In Paris, Hughes hopes to put the record straight.

“I would love to rewrite the history books after what happened in Tokyo,” says Hughes, who would watch Italy’s Lamont Marcell Jacobs claim a shock gold.

“I believe that [I would have won that final]. I felt it. I felt I was ready. Obviously, when that happened, everything stopped.

“Recently I read a saying: ‘You might have been delayed, but you’re not denied.’ I believe that.

“When it’s my time, it will be my time.”

Watch coverage of the London Diamond League on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app from 13:15 BST on Saturday, 20 July.


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