Italian job ends for Neita and Azu – AW

British sprinters leave Italian sprint factory run by coach Marco Airale despite successes on the track in 202024

An Italian exodus is underway from the Padova-based sprint training group led by coach Marco Airale.

Daryll Neita, who finished fourth and fifth in the Olympic 100m and 200m last summer, has moved to Florida to join Lance Brauman’s coaching group, while GB team-mate Jeremiah Azu has relocated to Cardiff in South Wales to team up with his old coach Helen James.

British sprinters Reece Prescod, Adam Gemili and Ama Pipi are also understood to have left Italy, although Amy Hunt appears to have remained.

In 2023, AW ran a big feature on the growing group. Then, in May last year, The Times published a large piece on it too.

Explaining her decision to train in Italy at the time, Neita said: “There was the option of coaches in the UK, and I do miss home, but I stayed here because I think Marco gets the best out of me. When it comes to performance and how to improve, we can communicate very openly and it’s freeing to attack that goal as a team. It makes such a difference to fighting with a coach.”

But the group has splintered now with Neita joining a Pure Athletics group in Clermont, Florida, which includes Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles.

Amy Hunt and Jeremiah Azu (Getty)

Azu, the European under-23 100m gold medallist and reigning UK 60m champion, told the BBC this month: “She (coach James) has a way with her words that makes my mind start to believe I can do these things. Every time I came back, she would always fill me with confidence and I feel like that is something I didn’t have over the last couple of years. So yes, I’m just taking it back to the beginning.”

Prescod, who ran 9.93 for 100m into a headwind three years ago, is training with Steve Fudge’s group this winter, whereas Gemili, the former European 200m champion who is now 31 but still training hard, is moving into coaching himself and has recently launched an online fitness training business.

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