Amy Hunt overcomes sickness to construct Glasgow confidence

Amy Hunt has warned there is plenty more to come this season after battling illness to produce a season’s best at the London Diamond League, revealing she came close to withdrawing before the race.

Amy Hunt produced a season’s best after nearly pulling out of the Wanda Diamond League and has warned her rivals that there is plenty more to come. The world 200m silver medallist had to settle for fifth at the London Stadium against a high-class field in her favoured event, which was won by Olympic 100m champion Julian Alfred.

Hunt’s time of 22.30 was 0.16 seconds slower than the time she ran in Tokyo last September to win her breakthrough silver on the global stage. And the Grantham sprinter revealed afterwards that it had come despite almost pulling out of the event because of illness in the build-up.

She said: “It went really well. I’ve had a really difficult build-up coming into this, so to come away with a season’s best was our biggest goal, and it was quite a sizeable season’s best, so I’m really happy with it.

“I’ve just had a lot of health issues. Last week was the first time I’ve ever had to stop a training session without finishing it, so there were definitely conversations about whether I should race.

“But it’s London. The crowd is amazing, it’s my home track, and it’s a really nice stepping stone on the way to Glasgow. I’m glad I raced, and I’m glad I was strong enough to get through it.

“We sat down about a week ago and had a proper conversation. We decided to take it day by day, but sometimes you’ve just got to be brave and go for it.

“There was a lot going on behind the scenes, but I wanted to be brave. I know I’m a strong person, so here I am.

“I didn’t really miss training, I just couldn’t finish one session. That’s incredibly rare for me, so we knew something wasn’t right. But I’ve been getting better day by day, and I wouldn’t have got through the week without all the support from my team.”

Hunt will now head to Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games, where she will race over 100m, before taking on both the 100m and the 200m at the European Championships in Birmingham next month. The 24-year-old showed her aptitude for big time racing in Japan when she edged out Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson, the second fastest woman in history, to take world silver.

That came after she had run 22.31 at the Diamond League in London in July, with Hunt confident that by running a hundredth faster this weekend, she showed how much she still has left in the tank.

She added: “It’s pretty much the same time I ran here last year, so if anyone’s paying attention, they’ll know that’s a pretty good omen.

“At Christmas I wrote down my goals, and now I’m starting to think, “Wow, maybe we can chase those.” I think I’m always a bit of a dark horse going into championships, so no matter what’s happened during my season, people should never write me off. I’m excited.”

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