It was possible to get odds of 40-1 with one leading bookmaker on Sunday for Reece Prescod to win 100m gold at the Tokyo Olympics, which will sound extraordinarily generous to anyone who saw the 22-year-old Londoner’s stunning run at the Birmingham Diamond League on Saturday.

It was not just the fact that Prescod set a new personal best of 9.94sec, putting him in the world’s top 10 sprinters this year. It was the way he did it. For despite starting like a man whose spikes had been superglued to his blocks, and being left several metres behind Christian Coleman at halfway, he finished so quickly he was just a thousandth of a second behind the American victor at the finish.

Reece Prescod’s late surge fractionally short of catching Christian Coleman Read more

Last week Prescod bought himself a projector as a reward for winning 100m silver at the European Championships. His aim was to help him better analyse his races. But he does not need a big screen to realise he is heading for the big time – fast.

The good news for British athletics is that Prescod is smart enough to understand his weaknesses, and is determined enough to fix them in time to make him a leading contender for the Doha world championships next year.

“The start is definitely a key thing I need to work on,” he said. “I am getting quicker, so once I have put another winter behind me – and got strong in the positions I need to get strong in – it will improve. We have really good biomechanics at British Athletics and once we get some good numbers and data I feel there is no reason why I can’t be challenging for the worlds.”

Whisper it but there were shades of Usain Bolt in Prescod’s style – if not yet in execution – and he certainly impressed Noah Lyles, the brash American who holds the fastest 100m and 200m times in the world this year.

“He is a really good finisher,” said Lyles, who finished third in 9.98sec, behind Coleman and Prescod. “I’d like to see him in the 200m to see how well that works out, because if he finishes that fast in a 100m he’s good enough to step up.”

Tired Dina Asher‑Smith falls just short to Shaunae Miller-Uibo in Birmingham Read more

Meanwhile, Dina Asher-Smith believes she can bounce back from this weekend’s defeat over 200m in Birmingham by challenging her 100m personal best at the Diamond League final in Zurich next week.

Asher-Smith, who became the first Briton to win the treble at the European Championships in Berlin last week, admitted to being extremely tired after finishing second behind Shaunae Miller-Uibo on Saturday. But she believes that with a week’s rest she could yet come close to her British 100m record of 10.85sec before the end of the season.

“I want to run another 10.8 before the season is done,” she said. “It’s what I’m training for. It would be lovely to do it in the Diamond League final. I like high pressure situations.”

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Miller-Uibo hailed Asher-Smith as a massive danger and inspiration after winning the 200m on Saturday. “I saw she went 21.8sec for 200m and it was really impressive and that she had a great Europeans,” she said. “The times she is putting down means she is ready to go and will be a force to be reckoned with at the world championships.”

Those sentiments were shared by Marie-Josée Ta Lou, the world 100m and 200m silver medallist, who was a long way behind Asha-Smith in Birmingham. “She is a sweet girl who I love,” she said. “She can definitely make the step up from European to world level. She has something special – she is so talented.”