Wolverhampton’s Matt Hudson-Smith will compete in the men’s 400m in front of his own stand on Wednesday, August 12. With the UK hosting its first-ever European Athletics Championships at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium, the British track star is probably the West Midlands’ best chance of bringing home gold.
The 6th fastest athlete of all-time in the 400m, he holds both the British and European record (a personal best of 43.44 seconds), and previously took the winning spot at the Championships in Munich (2022) and Berlin (2018)—but the 31-year-old will want to do it again in front of his home crowd.
Ahead of the European Athletics Championships, Alexander Stadium’s North Stand was renamed in honour of the Great Britain track star—who not only trained here as a youth, but won a silver medal here at the Commonwealth Games in 2022—and the title will be in place until the end of the Championships.
“It caught me off-guard walking in to see the stand is going to be named after me, and it was a special moment to share it with my family,” said Matthew. “It’s just an indication of all the hard work I’ve put in and to get a stand named after me is the icing on the cake of a great career and now I want to add more to it at Europeans.”
“Birmingham for me is home. I miss the people, I miss the food, I miss the environment. I always try and represent home to the best of my ability. It just means the world to me to come back here, run and show my talents to kids from the area to show them that they can do it.”
Fellow former Birchfield Harriers athlete—the Birmingham athletics club at Alexander Stadium—Amy Hunt has already delivered Britain’s first gold medal in the women’s 100m on Monday, August 10. Matt Hudson-Smith will compete in the men’s 400m on Wednesday, August 12 at 8:50 pm. You can watch it live on BBC One, or you might still find tickets to the event here.
