GB sprinter Hughes given Olympic trials exemption

Team GB sprinter Zharnel Hughes on the celebrating on the track at the World Athletics Championships 2023. He is wearing a purple and blue team GB track and field jersery. He is in a running position with his mouth open. He has a happy expression getty

Zharnel Hughes won 100m bronze at the World Athletics Championships in 2023

British sprinter Zharnel Hughes has been granted a medical exemption from taking part in the UK Athletics Championships in Manchester later this month, British Athletics has said.

The 28-year-old, Britain's fastest man ever over both 100m and 200m, is still expected to receive a discretionary place to represent Team GB at the Olympics in Paris this summer.

The UK Athletics Championships will double as the official track and field trial for selection for the Paris Olympic Games for all events other than the 10,000m.

Hughes is not able to take to the track though after picking up a hamstring injury during a meeting in Jamaica earlier this month.

"Zharnel Hughes has been granted a medical exemption from competing in this weekend’s UK Athletics Championship in Manchester as he continues to recover from a hamstring injury," British Athletics said.

The Anguillan-born sprinter broke a 30-year British 200m record in London last year with a time of 19.73 seconds and then went on to smash the British 100m record a month later at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, claiming a bronze medal in the process.

However, he missed the recent European Athletics Championships in Rome due to the injury, which will now keep him out this weekend's Olympic trials.

Posting the news on social media, British Athletics seemed to leave the door open for Hughes to make the Olympic team though, saying: "We look forward to seeing Zharnel back on the track during a big summer of athletics."

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