Low in numbers, high in quality is the message from the British Athletics team in Budapest.
A team of just 55 athletes has travelled to the World Athletics Championships, which get under way on Saturday, the smallest selection for 15 years.
UK Athletics’ hierarchy is adamant it is not a response to their financial woes, which they have been open about; instead a focus on world-class performances and medals.
A total of 19 additional athletes had been invited by World Athletics, rebuffed by British selectors, with some even threatening legal action.
Of those 55, there is reason for optimism for a better championships than a year ago in Eugene, where the team managed just one gold, a surprise one in the 1500metres by Jake Wightman, a notable absentee this time around because of injury.
Central to that is Usain Bolt’s one-time training partner in Zharnel Hughes, early in his career heralded as Bolt’s successor and finally living up to that billing at the age of 28.
Gym buddies with Bolt even now, Hughes said of the world record holder for the 100m: “Usain’s told me I can do great things” — and the Briton appears to have the belief.
He has proved something of a clairvoyant this season. Before races, he has taken to writing down in his journal his predictions. In New York, he predicted breaking Linford Christie’s British 100m record with a run of 9.83sec and, at the London Stadium, estimated a time of 19.73 to eclipse John Regis’s national 200m mark.
Both proved exact to the hundredth of a second. He says he has predictions for what is possible over 100m and 200m at Budapest but will not make that public until after the championships.
While Hughes is blooming late, the opposite is the case for Keely Hodgkinson, an Olympic, World and Commonwealth silver medallist, as well as European champion, all by the age of 21.
The message from her is simply she is way off the finished article. As she put it on the eve of these championships: “I just want to win as many medals as possible and become one of Britain’s greatest athletes.”
One athlete in the conversation for that, Seb Coe, has hailed her as “the real deal” and “outstanding” before running out of superlatives.
Another athlete Coe has always talked favourably of is Laura Muir, who split with her coach Andy Young at the start of the year after a breakdown in relations but arrived in Hungary happy and talking about breaking her British 1500m record.
There has been some disruption within the relay squads, which will be key in helping Britain in the overall medal table, with sub-10sec runner Reece Prescod pulling out of the relay squad to focus solely on the individual. In addition, Darren Campbell, who had been drafted in to add his expertise to the sprint set-up, is now no longer involved.
In the women’s sprints, there is a strong British rivalry between Dina Asher-Smith and Darryl Neita, but both will need to run personal bests to be in contention for the medalscome the 100 and 200m finals.
Katarina Johnson-Thompson, meanwhile, has talked about getting her mojo back and putting herself in the mix for a second world title to follow the one she won in such style in 2019.
The runners-up spot at her main warm-up event in Gotzis would suggest she is approaching her best form, but American Anna Hall looks a class apart.
Elsewhere, Brits are on the fringes of the medals, although the team usually has a penchant for conjuring up a surprise or two. Whether it justifies the new streamlined team selection will become clear in the coming days.
