Matt Hudson-Smith realised just how much winning European gold on home soil in Birmingham had taken out of him when he was left behind at the Diamond League final in Brussels. A month on from his historic victory at the Alexander Stadium, the track where he fell in love with the sport, Hudson-Smith needed a strong finish to run a respectable 44.23 seconds over 400m, good enough only for fifth.
That came after he was last coming into the final straight, with the emotional toll of his fifth European title starting to tell. Now, as he prepares to take on the world’s best at the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championships in Budapest, Hudson-Smith is hopeful that the energy he was lacking in Belgium will be back.
Emotional toll of European gold
He said: “When the Europeans were over, it was just about trying to recover as much as possible because it’s very unusual that you have two major meets back-to-back. I didn’t think it would take as much out of me but when I did Brussels Diamond League, it was very interesting. It’s quite funny, my agents and physios can attest to it, back in the day I would have dreamed of running 44.2 and now 44.2 is a bad run and a very fatigued run.
“On the one hand, I’m very blessed but on the other, I’m very frustrated because it got me fifth. My coach was telling me that when he was at the back that I was last at 300, and I’m never last at 300. Everyone was confused, messaging him asking if I was alright. But it was my first race back in a month.”
Memories of Budapest and Olympic ambitions
Budapest is a city that holds great memories for Hudson-Smith, having won world silver there back in 2023, a year before he did the same at the Olympics in Paris. In the French capital, he ran a European record of 43.44 seconds, a time which puts him seventh all-time in the world rankings.
Now, exactly halfway through the Olympic cycle, Hudson-Smith is enjoying a season of remarkable consistency, running 44-low in almost every outing, although he is yet to get down to a 43-second run so far this year. That is the only objective left to tick off for the season as he ramps up to Los Angeles 2028, and where better to do so than at the Ultimate Championships, with a $150,000 prize on offer for the winners of the events over the three days.
Consistency and targets for the season
“I still feel like I’m one of the best in the world. I think one of the things that is good about this year is the consistency,” said Hudson-Smith, who will go in the 400m semi-finals on Friday, aiming to qualify for Saturday’s final. “In an Olympic cycle, you kind of want to start fresh because you want to build. You don’t want to just go gung-ho, if that makes sense, because if you go gung-ho, then what are you going to have left for the Olympic year?
“I think the whole target of this year was, honestly, just to get consistency and win Europeans. So we’ve done the first part. Now it’s the second part of seeing whether I can run against the best in the world during the Ultimate.”
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