The fingers told the story of Amy Hunt’s incomplete mission in Birmingham on Thursday evening. First, she showed two for the gold medals she has collected so far in her domination of European sprinting and then she held up four to signify a job half done.
Even in this city of bovine obsessions, there presumably isn’t a bull stubborn enough to wager against that target being met over the weekend.
On Saturday, she will team up with Dina Asher-Smith in the 4x100m, for which the British quartet are favourites, and they will go again in the mixed relay on Sunday. Given the male talent pool includes Romell Glave and Jeremiah Azu, respectively the European gold and silver medallists, Hunt’s chances of delivering on her astonishing projections are more than strong.
By now, folk are aware enough of her remarkable talents, both for the winning of races over short distances and her willingness to accompany the golds with spoken nuggets. In an era when too many of her contemporaries hide their personalities behind thick shields, Hunt, 24, is the open book athletics needed; a Cambridge graduate who isn’t afraid to share idiosyncratic declarations of self-confidence and one who, repeatedly, has backed up big talk with big performances.
