CJ Ujah, whose failed drugs test cost Great Britain an Olympic silver medal, will return to major international competition for the first time on Friday at the European Athletics Championship in Rome.
Ujah had initially made himself unavailable for these championships but was named in the squad for both the men’s 100 metres and the 4x100m relay on Thursday after Jeremiah Azu withdrew from the team.
Richard Kilty, one of Ujah’s team-mates three years ago, had preciously said that he could never forgive what he called Ujah’s “sloppy” and “reckless” behaviour after the British quartet had sprinted to 4x100m silver only to later lose the medals.
Ujah served a 22-month ban for the positive test that was found to have been unintentionally caused by a contaminated amino acid bought on Amazon and has apologised to his team-mates.
After some impressive early season performances, the 30-year-old was then brought back into the squad during the spring, with Jack Buckner, the chief executive of UK Athletics, arguing that it was best to confront an “incredibly difficult” situation early in this Olympic year.
“We have to plan for every eventuality,” said Buckner. “There are massive personalities. I’d far rather we face up to that openly, transparently, now.”
Buckner also alluded to the “huge mess” in Budapest last summer when Reece Prescod dropped out of the 4x100m relay squad after not being included in preparations earlier in the year.
Ujah will compete in the 100m heats on Friday and is in a wider field that includes the Tokyo Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs racing in front of a home crowd in Italy.
Johnson-Thompson renews Thiam rivalry
The main British interest on Friday will centre on Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s big head to head against the Belgian double Olympic champion Nafi Thiam in the heptathlon.
Johnson-Thompson made a magnificent comeback last summer to regain the world title in a field that did not include Thiam, who is herself also a double world champion.
Both athletes will be aiming to peak in Paris in August when Thiam, who is already the only heptathlete with Jackie Joyner Kersee to win back-to-back Olympics titles, will go for three consecutive golds. Britain has a strong tradition in the women’s athletics multi event disciplines, with Mary Peters, Denise Lewis and Jessica Ennis-Hill all past Olympic pentathlon or heptathlon champions.
Johnson-Thompson also beat a field that included Thiam five years ago when she won the 2019 world title in Doha.
“Nafi is one of the greatest athletes of our generation, of all time,” said Johnson-Thompson. “I don’t feel like it is spoken about enough. To have her in the field is definitely going to raise everyone’s game.
“I’m feeling good. Hopefully a good performance can come out of it. It’s my first heptathlon of the year. In two days we’ll find out if the training has been going well.
“My hopes and expectations are to be able to put out a performance that my training shows.
“I know that training is going well but the heptathlon is always like spinning plates. Some things are going well over here and some are over here. I just want to put it all together, see what I can get and work from it for the rest of the season.”
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