Becomes first man to win three European 400m titles
Hudson-Smith: ‘Nobody is going to beat me on this track’
Stand … and deliver. On a balmy night in Birmingham, Matt Hudson-Smith powered past the stand bearing his name at the Alexander Stadium and into history by becoming the first man to win three European Championship 400m titles.
And afterwards, as the adrenaline flooded his body and he posed wearing a crown in front of the Matthew Hudson-Smith Stand, the 31-year-old made it clear just how much it meant. “Nobody is going to beat me on this track,” he said. “This is my home. I have been here since I was nine. I know this track like the back of my hand.”
Born in Wolverhampton. Made in Birmingham. Forged in the fire of competition. But this wasn’t the easiest of wins given that Hudson-Smith started in lane nine, which meant he was blind to the challengers inside him.
No wonder that when the starting gun went off he went off like a man sprinting for the last bus of the night. And while he began to tie up in the final 70 metres, he easily had enough to win in 44.17sec.
“I knew it would take one hell of an effort to get past me,” said Hudson-Smith. “Every time someone beats me, I kind of end their career. I knew that for them to beat me, they would have to have a supernatural moment.”
Muhammad Abdallah Kounta of France took silver in 44.40, while Jonas Phijffers of the Netherlands took bronze, a hundredth of a second further back, in a new national record.
They were happy with their spoils. But no one was more ecstatic as Hudson-Smith, although there was a little sharpness to his celebrations, as he took a dig at the BBC afterwards for suggesting he might be carrying an injury.
“You guys need to come with the facts, man,” he said. “Saying I was injured and everything. The whole point of rounds is to survive and advance. I tried to conserve in the rounds.
“Me and my coach were laughing all the way around. I knew I was the best in the world. I knew that. On paper, I was a second faster than these guys.
My coach said: ‘Once you seal the deal, make sure you do it,’” he added. “This is your home. Defend it.”
The only disappointment was that the stand named after him was not packed to the rafters to celebrate his triumph. There has been a lot of talk about prices being too high. However, it is not as simple as that given that most of the £110 Category A seats in the main stand were sold out.
It has been the cheaper tickets, some of which have been priced as low as £40 and £20, that have struggled to sell out.
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