Stocky fast-finishing 100m man with a mullet haircut and safety pins in his ears is merely getting into his stride, says his coach Carl Lewis Along with Phoebe Gill, Louie Hinchliffe has emerged as the British breakthrough star of this Olympic summer. From relative obscurity he has smashed the 10-second barrier for 100m, won the British Olympic trial and is now eyeing up medals in the individual sprint and relay in Paris. He is not a conventional looking elite sprinter, though.
Not many leading 100m men have a mullet haircut for starters. Even fewer wear safety pins as ear-rings, as he did in Manchester on Saturday. His mum is from the Philippines and his dad from Rotherham.
Short, stocky and with a pronounced forward lean, he oozes power in the closing stages of his race. “He’s a pretty low-key guy and unassuming, which is a good thing,” says Carl Lewis, who coaches the 21-year-old at the University of Houston. “He has a lot of unique qualities.
He’s a good-looking kid. He has a different look, he’s shorter, stockier, and has long hair.” Lewis, who turned 63 on Monday (July 1), is no stranger to Britain.
As an athlete he raced in Europe and Britain regularly and is familiar with ‘ ’. I first met him at a Nike shoe launch in Portland around 20 years ago and when I deliberately used the term ‘track and field’ – due to it being more common in the United States – he realised I was British and corrected me. “You can call it athletics,” he smiled.
His.