Great Britain’s Jeremiah Azu wins 60m gold at World Indoor Championships
Becoming British 60-metre sprint champion, a dad, a European champion and now world champion. To say that it has been a dream month for Jeremiah Azu feels like quite an understatement.
“This is just the start of our journey - the sky isn’t the limit - there is way, way more than that,” said a tearful Azu on Friday, upon winning his first global title. Even bigger tests will certainly follow outside but, after running 6.49sec twice now to win major indoor titles, Azu already believes that he can also dip under 9.90sec this summer to join the absolute elite of world 100m sprinting.
They were largely absent from Nanjing in China on Friday, where Azu rose to the occasion quite magnificently to beat Australia’s Lachlan Kennedy by just 0.01sec on the finishing dip. Such was the fine margin of victory that he endured a tense wait before the final positions were confirmed before letting out a scream of joy and running around the track. There was then plenty of trackside emotion as Azu reflected on the decision to return home to Wales to his long-time mentor Helen James following several years in Italy under the tutelage of Marco Airale.
What a moment for @Jeremiah_Azu! 🤩
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) March 21, 2025
He's secured 60m gold at the World Athletics Indoor Championships for the first global title of his career 🥇🙌#BBCAthleticspic.twitter.com/rXe48ixFok
“The last two years have been very difficult for me,” said the 23-year-old. “I was thinking about it, and reflecting, and it’s so important to surround yourself with people that believe in you. Belief and confidence are everything. This one definitely goes to Helen. The plan is just to keep on winning. I said at the Europeans I want to take over the world.”
Azu, who was previously also a double European Under-23 champion, says that becoming parents with partner Terri to their baby son Azaire had provided a new perspective. He is clearly also thriving being back in familiar home surroundings. As well as teaming up again with James, who was his coach as a junior, Azu is embedded in his local community in Rumney near Cardiff where he sings as part of a seven-strong church band every Friday and Sunday. His father Alex had even taken a 5am overnight ferry when he was in the Netherlands earlier this month after watching his son win the European Indoor Championships so that he could still preach in church as usual later that day.
Azu also had time to go home between the two championships – sporting GB kit as he sang in the band – and believes that growing up in such a connected faith community has helped him with elements of new fatherhood.
“We had a lot of conversations before, but I think when the baby actually arrives, those conversations kind of go out the window, because it’s a new challenge for us both,” he says. “I guess it’s just extra motivation. If I wasn’t motivated enough already. It’s another reason to go hard. It’s another reason to get up in the morning. It’s another reason to run every rep. All these little things add up.
“With our family, there’s always someone that needs a hand, and with the church, there’s always someone that needs some sort of help.”
After being disqualified for a false start in the Olympic 100m last summer before helping Great Britain to a sprint relay bronze, Azu also believes that his fatherhood has helped him deal with pressure.
“I think it makes stuff like this easier,” he said. “The feelings I got from that - stepping on the line, there’s no fear in that any more - there’s so many bigger things for me. It’s all the more worth it that one day he’ll be able to look back and watch me do the best I could and win something.”
Azu was the only British gold medallist at the European Championships but there were promising starts in China for both Georgia Hunter-Bell and Amber Anning to respectively reach the 1500m and 400m finals.
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Jeremiah Azu wins European Indoor gold for Britain in men’s 60m
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