PRES-COCIOUS TALENT
20-YEAR-OLD REECE PRESCOD TELLS BEN COLDWELL THAT HE’S READY TO MAKE BIGGER STRIDES IN 2017
PICTURES: MARK SHEARMAN
REECE PRESCOD
Reece Prescod: caught the eye with 10.04 for 100m earlier this year
ATTEMPTING to coin the nickname the ‘British Bolt’ is ambitious in the extreme – some may say folly, given the sheer depths of achievement and worldwide appeal of the Jamaican legend – but Reece Prescod’s team feel it’s about time the wider British public knew the young sprinter’s name.
As Europe’s No.1 junior 200m runner in 2015, despite running just four races, and England’s under-20 champion from 2013, Prescod is already well-known internally in the British athletics community as a hot talent. But the 20-year-old’s 10.04 at the England Athletics Championships this year sent a ripple of shockwaves through to the country’s Olympic-bound sprinters, who were almost literally boarding the plane to Brazil when Twitter told them of Prescod’s achievement.
National medallist: Prescod was third over 200m at the Olympic trials
Off the back of two years’ worth of injuries, and with just one year of full-time training and living an athlete’s life under his belt, the Walthamstow-based athlete finished joint-fourth in the country over 100m and fifth over 200m. All things considered, it’s been a positive one.
“It’s been a great year,” Prescod says. “It’s been almost like my comeback season and I’ve put myself back on the map in terms of athletics for young sprinters coming from the under-20 ranks upwards.”