Atheltics Weekly

NETHANEEL MITCHELL-BLAKE
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NETHANEEL MITCHELL-BLAKE IS LEADING THE WAY IN BRITISH 200m
SPRINTING AND TELLS JESSICA WHITTINGTON ABOUT THE JOURNEY
PICTURES: GETTY IMAGES FOR BRITISH ATHLETICS & MARK SHEARMAN
IVE YEARS ago, Nethaneel
F
Mitchell-Blake was watching
the London 2012 Olympics on
a laptop in an office in Jamaica.
Undertaking an internship over the
summer, his days were filled with filing and
scanning but his breaks were dedicated to
catching up on the track action taking place
four and a half thousand miles away in the
UK capital.
While he was proud to be working that
summer job, athletics was where his heart
was at.
“I remember all the interns would come
in wearing jeans and a shirt but I took it
seriously – I put on my slacks, a shirt and a
tie,” Mitchell-Blake smiles. “I had a briefcase
with nothing in it!
“I kind of set the trend because everyone
was like ‘look what he’s doing, we’ve got to
do it too!’
“I remember watching Adam (Gemili) in
the 100m and the 4x100m guys and I just
said, ‘I need to be there, I need to ensure
that I get myself there somehow’,” he adds.
“I’ve been blessed and fortunate enough to
be able to make that prophecy come true.”
His days in an office might now be long
gone, but Mitchell-Blake continues to be
a trend setter. With a 200m PB of 19.95
which places him second on the UK all-time
list behind only John Regis, the 23-year-old
is leading Britain’s current crop of half-lap
sprinters and he doesn’t show signs of
slowing any time soon.
Born in Newham, the sprinter joined
Ilford AC as a child but moved with his
parents to Jamaica when he was 13 years
old. ‘British’, as he was known by many of
his friends in Jamaica due to his London
accent, would later move to a third country
after catching the attention of Louisiana
State University in the USA. Mitchell-Blake
is now only the second GB sprinter after
Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake: reached
the semi-finals at the Rio Olympics
Gemili to have gone both sub-10 and 20
seconds for 100m and 200m respectively.
The 2017 NCAA silver medallist never
lost touch with British athletics, however,
and competed for the nation at both the
2011 IAAF World Youth Championships
in Lille and the 2013 European Junior
Championships in Rieti, where he led a
GB clean sweep ahead of Leon Reid and
Matthew Hudson-Smith.
Despite racing for Britain as a teenager,
plus at last year’s European Championships
and the Rio Olympics, this year’s national
championships in Birmingham marked
Mitchell-Blake’s return to UK competition
for the first time in a decade. The Dennis
Shaver-coached athlete broke the
championship record to claim the 200m
title in a high-quality final and secure his
spot on the GB team for the IAAF World
Championships in London, where he
intends to make even more of an impact on
home soil.
“Running at the trials was definitely a
very emotional experience for me,” he says.
“Being based in the States, you always
see what’s going on and I never had the
opportunity to run at the trials. Then you
hear the rumours, ‘well, he can only run in
America, he can’t run in England’ and I had
a little chip on my shoulder!”
With Usain Bolt concentrating on the
100m this summer, the 200m looks a more
open event and Mitchell-Blake has world
medals on his mind.
“Who doesn’t want gold?” he says. “I
definitely feel that my coach and I are doing
things right – my body is feeling really good,
it’s a home championship. With a home
crowd behind you, it’s like a 12th man in a
football stadium. There’s a reason why you
win more games at home than away so I
feel this could be a special championship
for the country.
“Hopefully we can change the culture on
a whole to say that making the team is not
enough, making the heats is not enough.
We want medals,” adds Mitchell-Blake,
who will be joined by team-mates Danny
Talbot and Zharnel Hughes in contesting
the 200m and will have his family back in
East London supporting him in the stadium
that he saw on his laptop screen in 2012.
“I believe we have a young group who
are all motivated and are starting to believe
in themselves. You will see a change in
British sprinting, I guarantee you. The times
that we are running are competitive enough
to compete with the world’s best.”
n The men’s 200m gets under way with
the heats on Monday evening, before
the semi-finals on Wednesday evening
and the final on Thursday at 21:50
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