“There’s a lot of people gunning for me this year,” Richard Kilty says, as he reflects on the 33 strides that changed his life last March. “There is a target on my back. Everyone wants my scalp.”
Kilty sounds like a prizefighter about to rejoin battle, and in a sense he is: when he competes in the Glasgow International Match on Saturday it will be his first race indoors since that windy evening in Sopot 10 months ago when the then 24-year-old billed as the Teesside Tornado shook up everybody – including himself – to become the world indoor 60m champion.
But there is something he wants his opponents to know. “I’m as hungry now as I was before I won the worlds,” he insists. “And I am stronger and fitter than I was at this point last year.”
Some might dismiss this as athlete talk, the sort of pre-season posturing you get before the clock has provided a more sober assessment. Others would point out that Kilty’s 2014 outdoor season rather blew itself out after he ran a decent 100m in 10.12 in early May – although he was impressive in the 4x100m relays at the Commonwealth Games and European championships, where he won silver and gold.
However, sceptics would be unwise to dismiss Kilty as a one-season wonder. For a start, he knows a thing or two about comebacks: in February 2013 he had no coach or lottery funding, had quit athletics and was about to join the army – and yet 13 months later he was world indoor champion. And, as he explains, there were valid reasons for his dip in form last season. “Outdoors my training programme didn’t suit,” he says. “I wasn’t doing enough weight training, I lost about a stone staying out of the gym and I didn’t run any 200s in training, so there was a dispute there between me and my coach.”
That had knock-on effects when Kilty raced outdoors. The problem was not that he got to 60m outdoors and ran out of steam, as many assume. It was that he was slower throughout his races because of that loss of power and stamina. It is something that Kilty, who has been without a coach since Rana Reider left British Athletics, has spent the autumn and winter correcting.
“I am very, very fit at the moment,” he says. “I’m running lots of 200m and 300m and I even ran a 400m in training last week – although I was so knackered after doing that and 10 sets of 100m that I was a bit knocked out for five minutes afterwards.”
Amid the hard graft has come the odd moment of pleasure – most notably when he was invited to switch on the Christmas lights in his home town of Stockton-on-Tees and was inducted into its hall of fame. “I’m really proud to be from Stockton-on-Tees, and there were thousands of people screaming to me when I switched on the lights,” he says, appreciatively. “And in the town’s hall of fame, I’m now alongside John Walker, the guy who invented the matchstick, and George Stephenson, who invented the first passenger steam train, which is absolutely unbelievable.”
Kilty will begin to rev up his season in Glasgow, but admits it might take a few races to reach top speed. “I’m pretty nervous about how well I will run,” he says. “I haven’t done much speed work so I’m not really focusing on the first few indoor races in terms of shocking the world with fast times, but that will come down the line.”
As Kilty points out, he ran 6.68 in his first indoor 60m race last season, which was chopped down to 6.49 in Sopot, a massive difference over 60m. And he believes he can go quicker still this year. “If you watch that 6.49, I actually swerved in the inside and the outside of my lane and I was a bit tight with it being a world title,” he says. “So I think I can run around 6.45 if I am in peak condition and I run the perfect race.”
That would make Kilty the joint-fifth fastest man in history over 60m. And, he confides, he has Dwain Chambers’ British record of 6.42 in his sights over the next three to four years.
For now, however, he is delighted to bask in the thrill of topping the bill in Glasgow. “The last time I came to the Glasgow indoors was as part of the Spar Sprints programme as a 16-year-old, but I didn’t get to compete because I pulled my hamstring in the warm-up area,” he says. “I remember crying because it was the first time I was due to compete in front of a massive crowd. Nine years on, I’m expecting some happier memories this time round.”
Richard Kilty will compete at the Sainsbury’s Glasgow International Match. For tickets visit britishathletics.org.uk
