What a month March has been for Jeremiah Azu. The British sprinter became a father for the first time, won European indoor gold and is now a global champion, a World Athletics report said, after fending off the threat from Australian rising start Lachlan Kennedy to win gold by just 0.01 at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Nanjing 25 on Friday (21).
Azu marked 60m gold in Apeldoorn by returning home to 1am nappy changing duty for son Azaire.
In contrast in Nanjing, his immediate celebration following a tight finish was to roar out loud and start sprinting euphorically around the track.
Only a hundredth of a second had separated the winners of the semifinals: Azu, Eloy Benitez and Ronnie Baker, teeing up a mouth-watering final in the last event of the first night of action in Nanjing.
Come the final, Puerto Rican Benitez pulled up very early on, grimacing in pain, while Baker was another injury casualty in the latter stages of the final.
In contrast, the athlete named ‘Azoom’ immediately got out of the blocks well and went on to match his personal best of 6.49m to fend off a fast-finishing Kennedy at the line.
South Africa’s Akani Simbine, a six-time global fourth- and fifth-place finisher, got the first major international individual medal of his career, clocking 6.54 for bronze.
“Just raw emotion,” said Azu, who is unbeaten this season and becomes the first British champion in the event since Richard Kilty 10 years ago. “I was a bit emotional before the final with my coach. The last three years have been very difficult for me.
“It’s about the final and doing it when it matters. I’m glad I’ve got the ability to do that – the ability to win.”
His performances indoors make amends from the Olympics last year when he was disqualified in the heats of the 100m before going on to get bronze in the 4x100m. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, he would later call the Games “bittersweet”.
The Welsh athlete made the decision to relocate from his previous training base in Italy to return to Cardiff to renew his old partnership with coach Helen James, who had encouraged him to take up athletics in the first place as a teenager. He was quick to dedicate his latest gold to her.
The 23-year-old has cut a calm and confident figure all season. In his semifinal, which he won in 6.52, he sung to the camera on the start line and was similarly effusive come the preamble in the final.
Despite that earlier win, the final still seemed wide open with the likes of Kennedy, the fastest man over 60m this season, as well as Baker, Benitez and Simbine in what was his World Indoor Championships debut. In the end, it was a highly successful introduction as the South African rounded off the podium.
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