Reece Prescod has accused UK Athletics of emotional blackmail following his withdrawal from the 4x100metre relay squad at the World Athletics Championships.
Prescod had returned to the squad this summer after being overlooked at the start of the year. But he then injured his hip running the relay last month so opted to focus solely on the individual event on his arrival in Budapest.
After qualifying from his heat of the 100m, the 27-year-old said undue pressure had been put on him by UKA bosses in what he called “not the most pleasant conversations”.
“I was a bit upset about some of the conversations,” he said. “It just wasn’t a nice environment to be in. I had a few different meetings on occasions and it kind of felt a little bit like emotional blackmail.
“And I was kind of like, ‘I don’t want to let down the country’ and they were like ‘you know your reputation is going to be ruined if you do this’… and the media after this is not going to be a good place.
“I’ve been trying to be a bit of a role model and then to have this kind of come out, I was like ‘come on’.”
Prescod said his fellow sprinters such as Zharnel Hughes and Eugene Amo-Dadzie, who also all qualified from their heats, had been supportive of his decision to pull out of the relay, which takes place towards the end of next week.
Prescod’s initial omission from the relay squad in January was a surprise, even more so when he ran sub-10s this season which saw him become a late addition to that squad.
But he hurt his hip coming out of the bend for the last leg of a relay three weeks out from the Worlds, which he feared had jeopardise his Budapest participation and ultimately resulted in his decision to pull out of the team element.
“It’s not that I don’t want to be part of the team,” he said. “Me and the boys get along. But I didn’t want to risk hurting myself. I don’t really want to risk it.”
