Adam Gemili eager to make up for Rio 2016 Olympic heartache when World Athletics Championships roll into London next year
Brit sprint star missed an Olympic bronze by three one-thousandths of a second in a photo-finish with Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre

ADAM GEMILI aims to make up for Rio heartache at the IAAF World Championships in London next summer.
The Brit sprint star missed an Olympic bronze by three one-thousandths of a second in a photo-finish with Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre.
Gemili had been aiming to become the first Brit to win an individual Games sprint medal since Darren Campbell got silver in the same event at Sydney 2000.
And 24 hours later, the 4x100 metre boys could only finish in fifth, with Gemili running the anchor leg.
He admitted: “It was an emotional 48 hours with the 200m and the 4x100m relay. But it happened, it’s part of sport and is what you sign up for when you go into sport.
“I just wish I had that bronze medal to keep — but it wasn’t to be. With the relay, we were so set on winning a medal. We believed we could and gave it our best shot.”
RELATED ARTICLES
The London World Championships will see sprint superstar Usain Bolt bring the curtain down on his golden career having sealed a historic TRIPLE-TRIPLE in Rio.
After 11 world titles, the Jamaican icon plans to focus on the 100m and 4x100m relay. Not his favoured 200m.
Gemili said: “I know he says he’s not doing the 200m in London, but you never know what can happen over the next year. He might change his mind and do the 200m.
“I focus on myself, but it will be a shame not having him around after those championships.
“Bolt will be a big loss to the sport. He is such a big character and has done so much for athletics.
“Three gold sprint medals at three successive Olympics — it’s never been done before and I’m not sure it will be done again.
“I’m so lucky to have been around competing at the same time.”
As an 18-year-old rookie, Gemili lined up in the semi-finals of the 100m at London 2012 alongside Tyson Gay and Yohan Blake — just missing out on a final spot by four hundredths of a second.
Now he cannot wait to compete again at the Olympic Stadium in his own backyard when London hosts the 2017 IAAF World Championships.
Londoner Gemili played non-league football for Dartford having come through the Chelsea youth set-up before deciding to focus on athletics in 2012.
He said: “The World Championships are extremely important and especially so now after everything that happened to me in Rio.
“We have a lot of young athletes who can go out, smash it and really challenge the best in the world next year. We had young athletes making finals in Rio and, for some, it was a learning curve.
“But people forget that for many it was their debut Olympics, or their first serious shot at a Games.
“Now some of the older guard are thinking of retiring, we can take over from them. Jess Ennis-Hill, Mo Farah and Greg Rutherford — these guys will not be around for many more years and the responsibility falls to a lot of us younger athletes.
“Those guys are unbelievable and set such a high standard. You almost take it for granted that every time they compete they will win a medal.
“Next year, though, the onus will be on the younger guys.
“By London 2017 and, especially with Tokyo 2020, we can hopefully be doing the job. I think as it is a home championships next summer, too, everyone will raise their game.
“People forget, at Beijing 2008, Mo didn’t make the 5,000m final. Greg got ill the day of the final and Jess missed the Games injured.
“They had bad luck as well or were just coming onto the scene. They weren’t in the mix — but look at them over the last eight years and all they have achieved.”
And Gemili, 22, who was team captain in Rio, is convinced that GB’s new breed of stars are ready to take up the baton.
He said: “Now we have athletes around my age, such as Kat Johnson-Thompson, Dina Asher-Smith and Matthew Hudson-Smith.
“They have all started making finals and are on the edge of getting individual medals. Dina got a bronze in the 4x100m relay — she is an unbelievable talent.”
Gemili made his debut at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow, when he did both solo sprint events.
It led Bolt to jokingly question what he was doing in the call-room ahead of the 200m final as he thought he was a 100m specialist.
Gemili, the only British man to break the 20-second barrier for the 200m and the ten-second mark for the 100m, clinched the European 200m crown in 2014 when Lemaitre finished a distant second.
But he missed last summer’s Worlds in Beijing with a hamstring injury from racing under 10sec for the first time at a Diamond League meeting in Birmingham.
Gemili is already excited about competing in London again.
He grinned: “The home support makes a difference. We took crowds for granted at London 2012 and the 2014 Commonwealths in Glasgow were the same.
“As we’ve seen at championships around the world, it’s not always like that — stadiums are not always full.
“Yet British fans seem to come out in droves to support us. We get spoiled. London’s Olympic Stadium is my favourite place to compete.
“I have such special memories from 2012.
“Now I don’t fear anyone and that is what London taught me. I go out to compete for a medal.”