UEL student Hylton misses out at World Championships

Bianca Williams was given a reprieve after confessing she had embarrassed herself with her run in the 200m heats at the World Championships – qualifying for the semi-finals as a fastest loser.

The former University of East London student finished fourth in her heat, with a time of 23.30 seconds, and broke down in tears before speaking to the media, clearly distressed at the thought of not progressing.

But after six more heats, no-one outside of the automatic qualifiers had beaten her time, meaning she makes Thursday’s semi-finals and gets a second chance to do her support team proud.

“I feel really disappointed in myself. I know I’m better than that, I’ve run so much better this season, just even to qualify for the champs,” said the 23-year-old immediately after her race.

“I’ve shown such good form, I just feel like I’ve just let myself down, let my mum down, my partner down, my coach down - everyone that supports me down.

“They expected better than this and I expected better myself.

“It really sucks, to come here at your home World Champs and not perform as well as you wanted to.

“I just feel embarrassed more than anything. I don’t want to come up with excuses, because I’m better than that, so I’m just going to say it wasn’t my day.”

But while Williams will return to the London Stadium on Thursday, fellow UEL student Shannon Hylton has run her last race at the championships.

The 20-year-old was making her senior debut on the global stage in a British vest, and was at a loss to explain why her time of 23.39 was down on her personal best of 22.94 – a mark she has set twice in 2017.

“I’m very disappointed, it was one of my slowest times this season,” said British champion Hylton.

“I got out and stumbled a bit around the bend, but then I was doing okay and tried to kick, and then just didn’t really have it and tightened up a bit. I’m just a bit disappointed how it went. It’s not good.

“Not really anything went wrong. I’ve had an issue with my Achilles but it’s been on and off all season so I’ve just had to make do with it.

“I went to trials with it so it’s not really an excuse to be concerned about, I’m not happy about my time at all.

“It’s my first time on a stage like that and I’m just disappointed that I couldn’t put in a faster time.”

*You can help the next generation of young British athletes by getting involved in SportsAid Week this September with London 2012 hero Greg Rutherford MBE.

Find out more about how you can support the week of fun and fundraising by visiting www.sportsaid.org.uk/sportsaidweek.