12th May 2020
ON THIS DAY...PRESCOD SHINES IN SHANGHAI
Exactly two years ago today on 12 May 2018, British sprinter Reece Prescod claimed arguably the biggest win of his career to that point as he won over 100m at the Shanghai Diamond League – here we look back at that special moment.
After several years spent battling injury, Reece Prescod shot to prominence in 2017 as he came within 0.03 of breaking the coveted ten-second barrier and reached his first World Championship final on home soil in London.
In 2018, he would better both – and a wet night in the Far East in Shanghai helped build the platform.
Following a brief indoor campaign and a low-key outdoor opener at his training base in Loughborough, Prescod arrived in Shanghai relatively under the radar with the field for the Diamond League 100m featuring world 100m champion Justin Gatlin, world 200m champion Ramil Guliyev, world indoor 60m silver medallist Su Bingtian, triple Olympic medallist from Rio 2016 Andre De Grasse and the reigning champion in the series – and fellow Brit – CJ Ujah.
Clearly unmoved by the line-up and clearly buoyed by the wet weather, Prescod ran a superb race from lane nine. Su got off to the better start but Prescod finished like a train and reeled him in.
The Chinese athlete celebrated as he crossed the line but would be disappointed as Prescod clearly beat him home, winning with 10.04 – just 0.01 off that personal best set on the way to seventh at the World Championships in London. Su would clock 10.05 for second but the rest of the field were a clear way behind that, so good was Prescod.
It would mark a seminal moment for Prescod as he went on to clock a windy 9.88 at the Eugene Diamond League two weeks later, retain his British title in June and claim European silver in a legal personal best 9.96 in Berlin at the start of August.
He would go on to run sub ten seconds twice more before the end of the season, lowering his personal best to 9.94 – fourth on the all-time UK list – at the Müller Grand Prix Birmingham before rounding off with a 9.99 at the Diamond League final in Brussels.