Louie Hinchliffe: The meteoric rise of the 21-year-old Sheffield sprinter who can run the 100m in 9.84 seconds

HAVE you heard the one about the 21-year-old sprinter from Sheffield who can run the 100m in 9.84 seconds?

Who up until the age of 17 was focused on being a golfer, having played as a junior alongside Alex Fitzpatrick and Barclay Brown at Hallamshire?

Who was so raw at sprinting he once turned up to a British University Championship event without a vest, had to borrow one, and finished fourth?

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Whose talent is now being sharpened by one of the greatest sprinters of all?

Fast track: Louie Hinchliffe of Sheffield in a 100m sprint for the University of Houston with whom he ran a wind-assisted 9.84 seconds last weekend (Picture: Houston Athletics)Fast track: Louie Hinchliffe of Sheffield in a 100m sprint for the University of Houston with whom he ran a wind-assisted 9.84 seconds last weekend (Picture: Houston Athletics)
Fast track: Louie Hinchliffe of Sheffield in a 100m sprint for the University of Houston with whom he ran a wind-assisted 9.84 seconds last weekend (Picture: Houston Athletics)

Who could have timed his meteoric rise to perfection with the Paris Olympics right around the corner?

Scarcely believable, isn’t it, but that is the story of the sudden emergence of Louie Hinchliffe.

Last Friday at a National Collegiate Athletics Association Championships meeting in Arkansas, Hinchliffe – on an athletics scholarship at the University of Houston – ran the 100m in 9.84 seconds.

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This is when a disclaimer needs to come in, to pump the brakes on this remarkable story. Hinchliffe’s run was assisted by a tail wind of 2.5m/s which is 0.5 over the legal limit, so doesn’t technically count. But the 10 seconds flat he ran the previous weekend was legal, and does.

Sheffield and Dearne's Louie Hinchliffe has only been running seriously for a few years. Here he is running for the University of Houston (Picture: Houston Athletics)Sheffield and Dearne's Louie Hinchliffe has only been running seriously for a few years. Here he is running for the University of Houston (Picture: Houston Athletics)
Sheffield and Dearne's Louie Hinchliffe has only been running seriously for a few years. Here he is running for the University of Houston (Picture: Houston Athletics)

And that 9.84 is the second fastest time ever run by a Briton – Zharnal Hughes clocked 9.83s last year – and the quickest all-condition 100m in the world this year.

The time has come from nowhere – his previous best up until two weeks ago was 10.16 seconds.

“If anything, we all thought he was going to be a golfer,” says Hinchliffe’s dad, Stuart, when trying to explain his son’s explosion onto the scene.

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“He played with Alex Fitzpatrick, Barclay Brown. He played for Yorkshire Boys, he got up to North of England level, played off a handicap of 1. His sister was the athletics star growing up, she was a really good hurdler.”

Louie Hinchliffe after his 9.84-second 100 metres (Picture: Houston Athletics)Louie Hinchliffe after his 9.84-second 100 metres (Picture: Houston Athletics)
Louie Hinchliffe after his 9.84-second 100 metres (Picture: Houston Athletics)

A pupil at Notre Dame High School, Louie went with his sister to training sessions at Sheffield and Dearne Athletics Club where he was coached by Paul Hone – who remains a coach of his now – under the watch of team manager John Wood.

“Louie was just a quiet lad who kept himself to himself,” says Wood, now the chairman of Sheffield and Dearne. "He was a very raw talent, but you could see something like this in him, maybe not as quick as what he’s producing at the moment.

"He doesn’t look much, but if you see him run you think there’s something there. He was a kid that turned up, did his bit, went home – he was a team manager’s dream.

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“He’s not your usual sprinter in that respect, they’re the hardest people to manage because they can be so temperamental, but he caused us no trouble. He was no prima donna, more of a team player.”

Even three years ago, sprinting wasn’t something Hinchliffe could have envisaged making a living out of. He went to the University of Lancaster at age 18 on an academic degree.

Dad Stuart picks up the story: “We went to the BUCS Championship at Chelmsford. You’ve got all the Loughborough athletes kitted out, he turned up with another lad from Lancaster and they had one vest between them.

“This one guy was a distance runner and his race was earlier in the day. His vest was dripping in sweat, so we’d gone all that way and got told you can’t run without a vest.

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“By chance this girl said you’ll have to use a vest that’s not attached to any university – so he had to borrow a vest, and he still came fourth.”

Hinchliffe used to go to a running track in Morecambe on his own. Together with Hone, he transformed his fortunes enough to win the British Championships later that summer. That earned him a scholarship to the University of Washington which he took up in January 2023.

“He did well at Washington, broke a number of records,” continues his Dad, “but he needed more competition, had a lot of offers and ended up at Houston in August.”

And that is where he came under the tutelage of one of the greatest sprinters of all time – Carl Lewis – who has helped transform Hinchliffe into one of the fastest men in the world in 2024.

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This being Olympic year, Paris is the obvious next question. Hinchliffe admitted in the wake of his 9.84 time earlier this week it is “surreal” to think he is in the conversation.

The British Olympic trials are in Manchester on June 28.

Stuart adds: “He’s got the time of 10 seconds dead, which is important. If it’s blowing a gale and chucking it down with rain in Manchester it doesn’t matter so much.”

Given his form the last fortnight, don’t be surprised if Louie Hinchliffe blows you away this summer.

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