29 August 2023 , 11:47
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The boss of Britain’s record-equalling athletics team left Budapest praising their 10-medal haul but warning they must step it up again for the Olympics.
Stephen Maguire told of his “delight” at finishing seventh in the table at a World Championships in which France and Germany managed just one minor medal between them.
“These championships have been tough, the standard has been through the roof,” he said. “And Paris is going to be another level. It’s about embracing the opportunity but for the athletes not getting too excited until the right time.”
Maguire has been in the game long enough to know not to count chickens, even if gold medals for Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Josh Kerr augur well for next summer.
Silver medallists Keely Hodgkinson, Matt Hudson-Smith and Ben Pattison ran fearlessly, as did Zharnel Hughes, and there were reasons for cheer just off the podium in the likes of Jemma Reekie, Daryll Neita and Molly Caudery.
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Jake Wightman was ruled out by injury, Dina Asher-Smith hijacked by one at exactly the wrong time. Both should bounce back in France.
Katarina Johnson-Thompson was the comeback story of the championships, winning heptathlon gold four years, and countless setbacks, on from her first world title (Getty Images)“It would be wrong for me to be banging my chest and saying we’re in a great place,” said Maguire. “But there is a real feelgood factor.
“The way we're getting the medals, in very tough competition.. I’d be very optimistic.”
But not complacent. Maguire looks at the men’s 4 x 100m, the one GB relay team to miss out on a medal after their preparation was disrupted by Reece Prescod’s departure from the squad.
Zharnel Hughes won first British male individual sprint medal for 20 years with 100m bronze (PA)Without going into details of the case, Maguire uses it as an example of how the team can, and must, strengthen before the Olympics.
“One of the things we're trying to do, from a cultural point of view, is have a real understanding of what it takes,” he said.
“That's an understanding of what performance is, the behaviours that are necessary, the values and the culture we're trying to grow.
Great Britain sprinter Reece Prescod (CHRISTIAN BRUNA/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)“That's the big thing around everything: what is our culture? What do we stand for? We need to start roaring and we need to start performing."
Maguire added that the door is open “for everyone” going forward and said the message to all is “we need to win in Paris”, arguing that Britain has 4 x 1 sprinters good enough to land gold.
“You see what the USA did here and everybody is raving about them,” he said. “People need to remember what we did in Doha in 2019 was quicker. And we finished second.
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(UGC)“Standards are growing and growing. We want to be in finals but more than that we want, every time a British athlete gets on the track, that their opponents know they are going to be absolutely competitive.”