Louie Hinchliffe was told to choose GOLF over sprinting but Team GB’s newest track star didn’t listen – now he believes a 100m Olympic title is ‘there for the taking’
Eight years ago, Britain’s newest sprint star was offered a piece of advice from a former Olympic 100 metres champion. Fortunately, he chose to completely ignore him.
Louie Hinchliffe was 13 years old when he met Allan Wells – the gold medallist from Moscow 1980 – at a junior golf tournament in Malaga, Spain.
The Sheffield schoolboy was playing for his club Hallamshire, who were representing England in the Home Nations Inter-Club Championship, and Wells was a guest of honour.
At the time, Hinchliffe was showing promise in both golf and athletics, yet former Scottish sprinter Wells encouraged him to focus on one.
‘Allan had a long chat with Louie and asked him about his achievements in athletics and golf,’ recalls Hinchliffe’s dad Stuart, who was once a goalkeeper on the books of Rotherham.
Louie Hinchliffe is targeting Olympic success with Team GB in the men’s 100m sprint
As a youngster, Hinchliffe (left) was showing promise in both golf and athletics
Allan Wells (pictured) – the gold medallist sprinter from Moscow 1980 previously advised a young Hinchliffe (left) to choose golf over athletics
‘He explained how tough it was in athletics to achieve anything. They came to the conclusion that Louie should concentrate on golf as he was more likely succeed in that.’
Hinchliffe was then playing golf twice a day and had a handicap of one. Had he listened to Wells, he might have been competing for Team GB at Le Golf National alongside former US Open winner Matt Fitzpatrick, whose younger brother Alan played for Hallamshire with Hinchliffe in Spain.
Instead, Hinchliffe will wear a British vest at the Stade de France on Saturday morning for the heats of the Olympics 100m.
It is a remarkable story, especially given Hinchliffe had all but given up hope of having a career in any sport when he went to Lancaster University to study management and IT in 2021.
But his passion for running was revived when he won the England Athletics 100m title in Bedford in July 2022. Hinchliffe then applied for sports scholarship in the States, starting out at Washington State University in January 2023 before transferring to Houston last August.
‘We had our concerns with him moving to America, especially because he was at a good university at Lancaster,’ Stuart tells Mail Sport. ‘The collegiate system is so competitive you can easily be discarded.’
Yet Hinchliffe has thrived in that system under Houston head coach Carl Lewis, the nine-time Olympic champion. In June, he became the first European to ever win the men’s 100m at the NCAA Championships, when he clocked a personal best of 9.95sec.
Hinchliffe, who also ran a wind-assisted 9.84sec in May, backed that up three weeks later by winning the UK Championships in Manchester to book his place at the Paris Olympics.
Hinchliffe has been working closely with nine-time Olympic champion Carl Lewis (left) in Houston
Hinchliffe (left) will wear a British vest at the Stade de France on Saturday morning for the heats of the Olympics 100m
Hinchliffe has starred since making the move to college in the United States and believes Olympic success is ‘there for the taking’
Then, on his Diamond League debut at the London Stadium last month, he beat British record holder Zharnel Hughes to finish fourth.
So where does Hinchliffe think he would be now had not moved to the States? ‘I’d have just been graduating on the same path as my friends at the University of Lancaster and looking in the job market,’ he says. ‘Jobs wise, I don’t really have a clue what I’d have done. I’d probably be unemployed!’
This weekend, Hinchliffe’s job is to reach Sunday night’s 100m final. Do that and he believes anything is possible.
‘It’s an open field, it’s not clear cut and there’s no one leading the pack, so the win is up there for the taking,’ adds Hinchliffe, looking to emulate the success of the man who tried to talk him out of athletics.
