London 2017 has shattered fairytale storylines, with Mo Farah’s and Usain Bolt’s farewell races ending in defeat, but it has created some, too – notably in the men’s 4x100m relay where Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake anchored the British team to gold and later celebrated with his mother, whom he had not seen for three years.
Mitchell-Blake’s joy was unconfined when the scoreboard in the stadium confirmed he had secured victory for Britain by holding off the USA’s Christian Coleman. The juxtaposition as he bounced around, arms flailing, while metres away medics tried to put Bolt in a wheelchair, was stark.
But Mitchell-Blake had extra reason to celebrate blindly, knowing a long-awaited reunion with his mother was on the horizon. The 23-year-old was born in Newham, just a few miles from the London Stadium but the family moved to Jamaica when he was 13. His mother still lives on the island while Mitchell-Blake trains at the University of Louisiana.
“Being at university and having summer school, I was unable to see her for three years,” he said, “I had the opportunity to fly her out which is what I did. She was staying down the road but I was in the holding camp in Paris and I didn’t want to move her around. Then she was in Derby as my grandma is sick. She came every day to the meet but I hadn’t actually said hello to her but she was up there in the stands and somehow she got down to the side of the track and words cannot describe how much it meant to share that moment with her.
“I actually started laughing as I was just so happy,” he added, “then I started crying and I don’t know why. I guess it was because I was happy.”
After years of bungled handovers and bad-tempered rows ruining their chances the British men put together an almost flawless performance to win in 37.47sec. It was the first time Britain had won a short relay since the Athens Olympics in 2004. Remarkably Justin Gatlin featured in both those races and afterwards told CJ Ujah, who ran a blistering first leg, they bore more than a passing resemblance.
“It looked identical to Athens,” said Ujah. “I heard Gatlin was talking about it and how he was in that team. It was exactly the same, a battle to the line, so it was nice to get the victory.”
At London 2012 the team was disqualified as the result of a botched handover between Adam Gemili and Danny Talbot but they were as smooth as silk exchanging from the second to third leg on Saturday night.
“I was 18 in London,” said Gemili, now 23, “It was brutal, a horrible time we went through. It really made us tough and strong within ourselves and a bit resilient to that. Five years later to do it on the same track in front of a home crowd, for myself and Danny and Christian Malcolm, who is the relay coach now and was in that team with us, it felt so amazing that we could do it.”
Meanwhile Dina Asher-Smith revealed the agony of her battle to recover from a broken foot in time to compete in London and ultimately win a 4x100m silver medal alongside Asha Philip, Desiree Henry and Daryl Neita.
Asher-Smith, 21, broke the navicular bone in her foot in February and had an operation that involved having two screws inserted to hold it together.
“In early June, when I was fit from running under water, I was fit from doing gym, I just had to transfer things to the track,” she said, “My group would do a whole session but I could maybe jog a lap and then my foot would get tired. The next day I would sleep, recover, then I would jog a lap and I’d be able to do some sidekicks and my foot would get tired. It was really quite painful, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
“It’s a completely different foot now,” she added, “Even shoes don’t fit any more. I can’t wear sandals any more.”
Her team-mate Philip knows how she felt, having suffered her own potentially career-ending injury while trampolining in 2007, which inflicted major damage to a knee.
“After what I went through I have so much sympathy for anyone who has to come through injury,” she said. “The fact Dina came back in such a short space of time, I take my hat off to her, not many people can do that. She didn’t give up and most people would have.”
