European Athletics 2018: Reece Prescod is hot property after nearly becoming an estate agent

Great Britain's Reece Prescod (third left) wins The Men's 100m Final during day one of the Muller British Athletics Championships at Alexander Stadium, Birmingham
Martin Rickett/PA Wire

From the moment he turned 18, Reece Prescod felt the pressure to get into the workplace and earn a living.

He had one cousin in marketing, another in what he describes simply as “an office job”. Pondering a career as an estate agent, the sprinter reached a crossroads of whether his sport was a hobby or a job.

His father’s advice was simply — “Take care of the running and everything else will come”. And so it has proved. The 22-year-old has been the revelation of British sprinting and among the favourites for European 100metre gold when the event gets under way today.

He beat more established names for a surprise win at the British Championships a year ago but there was little shock when the fast man from Walthamstow repeated the feat a few weeks ago.

The London estate agency scene’s loss has proved sprinting’s gain, with Prescod gaining a first Diamond League victory in Shanghai this year and he ran an astonishing 9.88 seconds — albeit wind assisted — in Eugene, Oregon, which was just one-hundredth of a second off Linford Christie’s British record.

Yet, Prescod is far from a household name, a fact he is trying to change.

Day One Highlights


3.30pm | Men’s 100m
A mere warm-up to the semi-finals and final that follow tomorrow, the championships kick off on the track with round one of the men’s 100metres. Home expectations are high for medal potential for all three of Britain’s competitors: Zharnel Hughes, Reece Prescod and CJ Ujah.

4.05pm | Men’s 400m hurdle
Dai Greene, the captain of the biggest team Britain have ever taken to these championships, is in action. He promised his captain’s speech on the eve of the championships would not be a  sob story and the injury plagued athlete hopes the same will be the case in round one.

4.45pm | Women’s 100
Dina Asher-Smith has her sights set on a golden sprint double in the women’s 100m and 200m. The first  event gets under  way inside the Olympiastadion, with all eyes on the medals being decided back there tomorrow.

All times BST. Live on  BBC1 & BBC2

“I want to consistently be running in the top three at Diamond Leagues and to be winning major championships,” he said. “You need to be consistent. Look at tennis, at the big tournaments it ends up being Federer, Nadal or Djokovic. That’s what you aspire to.”

For all the braggadocio in global sprinting, Prescod is remarkably modest while still confident in his own ability.

He displays this when he likens being overlooked for Britain’s 4x100m relay squad at the Europeans as an omission akin to Germany leaving Leroy Sane back at home despite his stellar season for Manchester City. The Germans flopped at the World Cup, so whether the decision will backfire here remains to be seen. Prescod attended 10 or 15 practice sessions with the squad but opted against the relay at the Anniversary Games after a poor race in Rabat, Morocco, and missed out on relay selection.

That grates on him but similarly he accepts it is “not just about who is the fastest but team cohesion”.

Prescod is one of the few British sprinters yet to have dipped under the 10sec mark — his PB is 10.03sec — but Berlin could be the platform for something special. And with training partner CJ Ujah and Zharnel Hughes with him in the individual event, he has every confidence of a potential British 1-2-3.

“In a dream world that’s what would happen with me in first place obviously,” he said. Prescod has so far proved he is comfortable on the big stage, as he showed in qualifying for last summer’s 100m final at the World Championships in London. But there is no complacency as he faces the prospect of a first continental title of a career that was blighted by injury problems in the junior ranks.

For now, he says his focus is on following his mother’s advice. She said: “Mum instilled in me that I had to work if I wanted something from life.”

But there are still other job prospects to fall back on: his friend, Josh, having completed a stint on Love Island. As for the idea of that as a future summer job, he is unequivocal: “My friends say I’d be funny on it but no, not right now.”

Prescod clearly feels he has selected the best career for himself.

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