THE INSIDE TRACK: Zharnel Hughes will not trash talk CJ Ujah despite costly failed drugs test

Britan’s new hero of the 100metres comes up against a national villain in the event on Saturday. Yet any athletics fan hoping for a grudge match in Manchester is set to be disappointed.

This weekend’s UK Athletics Championships acts as a homecoming for Zharnel Hughes after he broke Linford Christie’s British 100m record with a world lead 9.83sec in New York last month. 

But just as significantly, the meeting marks a return to the spotlight for the man whose failed drugs test cost him an Olympic silver medal – CJ Ujah. Not that Hughes is about to start trash talking his old Tokyo team-mate.

‘I am happy for CJ and I am happy that he will be out there,’ said Hughes when asked by Mail Sport how it would feel to face Ujah in Manchester. ‘Every athlete deserves to let the process run and I am happy that everything has worked out for him. I’m looking forward to competing against him.’

Ujah’s ‘process’ began in August 2021 when he was suspended for testing positive for two banned substances after winning silver with Hughes, Richard Kilty and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake in the 4x100m relay at the Tokyo Olympics. 

Zharnel Hughes is fast becoming a star of British sprinting, and recently broke Linford Christie’s British 100m record

He will face CJ Ujah (pictured) at the UK Athletics Championship. The 29-year-old’s failed drugs test in 2021 cost team GB a 4×100 silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics

The quartet later lost their medal and, while Ujah was cleared of intentionally doping after it was ruled he had taken a contaminated substance, he was banned for 22 months last October.

That backdated ban expired last month and he has since made a low-key comeback at two Lee Valley Sprint Nights, running four 100m races, with a best wind-legal time of 10.17sec. This weekend in Manchester, though, is his first meaningful meeting since Tokyo two years ago – and he can expect a mixed reception from fans and fellow sprinters.

Kilty, for one, has said he will never forgive Ujah for the ‘sloppy and reckless’ behaviour that saw him stripped of silver, although he is only running the 200m in Manchester, so they will not go head-to-head.

‘I’ve just been keeping my head down,’ admitted Ujah last month when quizzed on what reaction he expected to receive from rival runners. ‘They say time heals so hopefully, although they will never forget, they might forgive.’

Ujah still harbours hopes of gaining selection for the World Championships in Budapest in August, but his chances are slim. He must finish in the top two at the UK Championships – which double up as the British trials – and also run under the world qualification standard of 10sec.

That is not something he has done since 2017, but three other Brits have hit the standard this year – Hughes, Reece Prescod and Eugene Amo-Dadzie, a full-time accountant who clocked a shock 9.93sec in Austria last month.

‘British sprinting has evolved and it’s getting more and more exciting,’ added Hughes, who will run both the 100m and 200m in Manchester. ‘To be a part of that rumble is something that I look forward to.’

On a weekend when the UK Championships will be fighting Wimbledon and the Ashes for attention, that 100m rumble will be well worth a watch – just don’t expect any Headingley-style hostilities at the Manchester Regional Arena

A big Test for Asher-Smith

Dina Asher-Smith faces a tough test in Manchester against a sprinter who stunned her last year

Daryll Neita (left) beat Asher-Smith in the Diamond League last Sunday, and won the sprint double in last year’s UK Championships

Daryll Neita is ready to resume her rivalry with Dina Asher-Smith – fresh from beating her in a British one-two in the Diamond League last Sunday.

Neita won the 200m in Stockholm, her first victory at that level, in a time of 22.50sec, 0.08sec ahead of her more illustrious team-mate.

The 26-year-old told Mail Sport in the winter to ‘expect some really fast times this summer’ and she has certainly delivered on that promise.

Neita smashed her 200m personal best with a run of 22.23sec last month, having clocked 10.97sec in the 100m in May. Both of those times are quicker than the best Asher-Smith has managed so far this summer.

It was at the UK Championships last year that Neita made her mark by stunning Asher-Smith in the 100m on the way to a sprint double. The way she is running, you would not bet against history repeating itself in Manchester this weekend.

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Eyebrows raised at Zialor’s injury plan 

Jake Wightman, who has ruled himself out of defending his 1500metres world title, is not the only injured British athlete to have made headlines this week.

High jumper Laura Zialor has also caused a stir after launching a crowdfunding campaign to cover the costs of surgery, having ruptured her Achilles tendon at the European Team Championships.

The 24-year-old, who is not on Lottery funding and works as a part-time supply teacher, has so far raised more than double her initial gofundme target of £5,000 to pay for the operation.

Zialor has been critical of the governing body for making her foot the bill. However, Mail Sport understands UKA had made arrangements for an NHS specialist to carry out her surgery, only for the Paris 2024 hopeful to turn down their offer because she wanted a private procedure abroad.

Young eyes World Championship in Paris 

Paralympic champion Thomas Young will be in action in the World Para Athletics Championships on Saturday

Jake Wightman (left) and Laura Zialor (right, centre) will both miss the UK Championships through injury

A year before the Olympics and Paralympics in Paris, the World Para Athletics Championships begin in the French capital on Saturday. The action is being streamed live on the Channel 4 Sport YouTube channel, with Great Britain sending a 45-strong squad.

Among their athletes is T38 100m Paralympic champion Thomas Young, who missed out on gold at the last worlds four years ago on a photo finish, after he and Chinese winner Zhu Dening both clocked 11sec.

‘After being millimetres from winning gold at my first World Championships four years ago, I would love to go one better and be on the top step of the podium,’ Young, 22, told Mail Sport. ‘Of course I won the gold medal at Tokyo 2020 but to win a global gold in front of an audience, and in particular my family, is the dream.’

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