Featured Image Credit: Getty
Topics: Usain Bolt, Athletics, Olympics
Ryan Smart
Four 'unknown' sprinters were tipped to be the 'next Usain Bolt' by The Telegraph in 2018 - and they went on to have vastly different careers to this point.
Bolt hung up his spikes in 2017 as a record-setting eight-time Olympic gold medalist in athletics.
He won three 100m titles in 2008, 2012 and 2016 respectively, and briefly held a record for winning gold in every Olympic final he ever competed in.
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That record was rescinded after one of his Jamaica team-mates, Nesta Carter, was found to have used a banned substance prior to the 4x100m relay in 2012, which his nation won. The entire team were disqualified as a result.
Bolt still holds world records in 100m and 200m which haven't been beaten in 16 years, having both been set during the 2009 World Athletics Championships.
Back in 2018, The Telegraph attempted to pick out the four up-and-coming sprinters of the future, described as 'unknown entities', that may even be able to challenge Bolt's records.
Here is how each one has got on:
In 2018, Reece Prescod was regarded as one of Great Britain's future hopes for the elite level of athletics.
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His personal best over 100m is 9.92 and won a bronze medal in the 4x100m relay at the World Athletics Championships.
But Prescod, who was born in 1996, is yet to compete in an Olympics, with compatriot Zharnel Hughes achieving more success.
Hughes holds the national record over 100m at 9.83, making him Britain's fastest ever man.
Big things were expected of Japanese sprinter Abdul Hakim Sani Brown when he burst onto the scene by winning 100m gold at the 2015 World Youth Championships, setting a championship-record time of 10.28 in the process.
Sani Brown would qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics with a time of 9.99, but had to battle through injury during the Games themselves and never challenged.
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He ran a personal best time of 9.93 at Paris 2024 but narrowly missed out on a spot in the men's 100m final, where he would have become the first Japanese sprinter in 92 years to compete. At 26 years of age, there could still be plenty more to come.
South African sprinter Clarence Munyai was tipped for a bright future after running a 200m time of 19.69 in Pretoria - a time which remains a national record.
The now 27-year-old qualified for Tokyo 2020 in the 200m and progressed through his heat as a next-fastest qualifier.
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But despite running a season's best of 20.49 - well below his personal best - Munyai could only finish sixth in the semi-finals.
He attempted to qualify for Paris 2024 as a part of the 4x100m relay team, but South Africa finished sixth in the qualifiers and did not make it to the Games.
The two-time World Championships finalist currently has a season best time of 21.75 in the 200m and will hope for significant improvement as the year goes on.
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Noah Lyles
In many ways, Noah Lyles has been Bolt's successor in the 100-metre event.
The American won the gold medal in Paris 2024, and only being diagnosed with COVID-19 on the eve of the 200m final - he still, controversially, competed in the race - prevented any chance of a double gold.
The 27-year-old's 200m personal best of 19.31 makes him the third-fastest sprinter of all-time over that distance - and there could be more to come.
Speaking in 2023 about potentially breaking Bolt's record of 19.19, Lyles coldly stated: "I know that I'm going to break it."