‘Academic badass and track goddess’ – Amy Hunt celebrates shock 200m silver

Amy Hunt insisted world 200m silver was “only the beginning” after years of determination not to let her talent “go to waste” finally paid off in Tokyo.

The 23-year-old is well-acquainted with the craft of weaving a satisfying story, having taken the unusual decision to train for the track alongside completing an English degree at the University of Cambridge.

“You can be an academic badass and a track goddess,” a beaming Hunt told the BBC.

Balancing the books with athletics was challenging enough, even before Hunt, who graduated in 2023, learned she needed surgery on a complete tendon rupture three years ago, a recovery that required help from her family just to get out of the shower.

“It’s been a massive roller-coaster and I’ve just trusted myself the whole entire time,” said Hunt, whose expression was a mixture of delight and disbelief as she crossed the line in 22.14 seconds, behind the United States’ Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and four hundredths of a second faster than Jamaican bronze medallist Shericka Jackson.

“I’ve known I had it within me and that failure was never an option for me. I knew I would make it. Even before this race, I visualised it so many times and to actually finally do it is incredibly surreal.

“That’s why I screamed. It just shows that you can truly, truly achieve anything. If you truly believe in yourself, anything is possible.”

Dina Asher-Smith, the 2019 world champion, finished fifth in 22.43s, having reacted quickest out of the blocks and been in third place at the halfway point.

Before these championships, Hunt felt she had fallen into “a few years of huge obscurity”, splitting her training between Loughborough and Cambridge, where she would change out of her athletics kit and into robes for dinner at a dining hall “like something out of Harry Potter” and hope she would not be one of the ones called upon to stand up and recite Latin.

Hunt knew what she was capable of, having set a world under-18 200m record of 22.42 in 2019, a mark which still stands, but belief, she remembers, dwindled to a point where “the only people who truly believed were myself, my coach, and my family”.

She added: “I knew I had something within me. I was running so fast, so young, I knew I was too talented for it to go to waste. I had a fire, I had a light inside of me that said it’s worth it, keep going. You truly have something.”

Hunt now trains full time under Marco Airale in Italy, where she lives in a “gorgeous” Padua pad and “gets the tram with all the grannies”.

But even this year has not been easy. Hunt revealed she ran a couple of races “with the shingles” and on the start line on Friday thought of her late grandfather, who died this year and inspired her to silver.

“This is the very beginning,” she said. “I think I was the youngest in that final and I’ve only had two years with my coach. The next World Champs is in two years, so that’s double the time.

“I don’t think that anything is off the cards. Even through the rounds I’ve been getting better and better. Give me two years and it’s going to be magical.”

Earlier, Zharnel Hughes finished fifth in a men’s 200m final won by American Noah Lyles, who ran 19.52 to successfully defend his title for the third time, beating compatriot Kenny Bednarek by six hundredths of a second.

Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson booked her place in Sunday’s final alongside training partner Georgia Hunter Bell.

Defending world champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson sits third after the opening day of the heptathlon behind American leader Anna Hall and Ireland’s Kate O’Connor.

George Mills is through to Sunday’s 5,000m final after coming fourth on a crowded finish line in 13:41.76 in his heat.