Eugene Amo-Dadzie believes the sky is the limit in Budapest
Eugene Amo-Dadzie will potentially be watched by a global audience of millions when he lines up for his 100m heats in Budapest.
The 31-year-old made his international debut for Great Britain at the European Indoor Championships in March but this is a different level of competition, heat and exposure.
Amo-Dadzie is a senior management accountant for a subsidiary of Berkeley Group and is used to balancing up his full-time job with his sprinting ambitions.
He is actually on annual leave to compete in the Hungarian capital. On August 29, it's back to the office.
The challenge of competing on the global stage in front of the eyes of the world is something that Amo-Dadzie is relishing.
After all, this season he has already clocked a time of 9.93, taken the scalp of Commonwealth champion Ferdinand Omanyala and shot up the world rankings.
"In terms of getting into the sport, it’s never something I expected to do," Amo-Dadzie says. "I’d sit at home and watch championships [thinking] 'yeah I could have been that guy if I’d joined a club, if I’d trained I could have made it'. I was content to be the guy that could have done it. That was my story for years.
"My really good friends, who I went to school with, they knew I was quick. For years, they would say to me, ‘if we had your talent Eugene, what we could have done with it.’ Grilling me, ‘you wasted your talent, you wasted your talent’. I just took the abuse, it was what it was. I wasn't about to do anything about it.
"The target or the aspiration there was ‘okay, do a bit of formal training, I was a big fan of Usain Bolt, so it was like I’m going to be not like Bolt, but I’m going to do formal training, I’m going to do formal sprint sessions and it is going to be really cool. That was the only expectation really that I had when I started. That would have been winter 2018 and, thank God, I sit here now, world's fastest accountant, about to be on the world stage."
Amo-Dadzie hadn’t planned to take up sprinting seriously until he was persuaded by his best friend Ben. The pair play Saturday League football with each other and five years ago were travelling back from a match at Aston Playing Fields – the home of Woodford Green with Essex Ladies – when they stopped and watched a 100m race.
Ben advised him that if he put a pair of spikes he could beat the guys who took part.
A spark went off in Amo-Dadzie’s brain and he joined Woodford Green and Essex Ladies AC in the autumn of 2018. A year on, he had clocked a wind-legal best of 10.93.
It’s exactly a second behind his current best mark of 9.93 and progression is obvious, with personal bests of 10.20 and 10.05 in 2021 and 2022 respectively.
"I’d definitely say my life has changed, after running sub-10 in Austria, obviously the attention," Amo-Dadzie reflects. "I’m not someone who is used to speaking with media all the time. I’ve spoken to various different media, platforms and channels. I have an agent now. I have signed up with an agency [Gateway Sports Group] who are looking after like building brand partnerships and all those kind of things.
"So I’ve left that with him to do. I very much would like to be an athlete and so I let him do what he needs to do. My life has changed in many different respects. I have people who have recognised me in certain places. Taking a picture. It’s really cool, I’m embracing all of it. It’s very, very different but I’m keeping my feet on the ground."
To compete at a world championships is an achievement in itself but Amo-Dadzie does it having started out in the sport at the age of 26.
His message is clear. Never give up on your dreams and it's never too late to start.
The full results of a bonkers men's 100m at the UK Athletics Championships ☔️
🥇 Zharnel Hughes (10.03)
🥈 Reece Prescod (10.14)
🥉 Eugene Amo-Dadzie (10.18) pic.twitter.com/YZ8ovr1jd1— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) July 8, 2023
"For some of my people who don't know track as well, I say look, 'I’m going to the World Cup of track and field'," Amo-Dadzie adds.
"And they are like ‘OK’. That kind of helped contextualise it for them. It’s just massive validation for the great work that me and my team have done.
"The main thing for me is that it’s never too late. So many people come up with so many different reasons, they are too busy, they are this and that. My whole thing is - I’m a man of faith of course - but it’s not like passive faith. It’s proactive. If you have a bit of belief and faith, it is never really too late to pick up the passion of something you are really good at, something you always really wanted to do.
"I hope that people look at my journey, because I feel like there is an element of my journey that doesn’t really make sense. It’s not very logical. It’s very rare, very unique, I want people to look at it, be inspired by it and know that ‘its never too late’.
"If myself, being a family man, being a chartered accountant, being the governor of a primary school. If I can do what I’ve done, by the grace of God, then why can’t you. We always find reasons why we can do things. I want my journey to be ‘no it’s possible’."
Amo-Dadzie is one of three Brits this season to have gone under ten seconds, with Zharnel Hughes and Reece Prescod being the others.
Prescod has clocked 9.99 but Hughes re-wrote the record books when he ran 9.83 in New York and bettered Linford Christie's 30-year-old British 100m record of 9.87.
That level of standard has driven everyone on and provides motivation for Amo-Dadzie ahead of Budapest.
"I remember when Zharnel [Hughes] broke the British record and I was just like ‘yes, come on’. When these things happen, for the rest of us it’s like 'cool, we’ve got to go now too, we’ve got to step up, we’ve got to keep bringing it'. We’ve been talking a lot about the Jamaicans and Americans, they have obviously dominated sprints for a number of years now. It’s great to see the British guys up there, mixing it.
"For me, personally, these guys are pushing me. It was great to have that dust up at trials in the monsoon, in the rain, that was fun. We are all drawing even more out of each other. For me, personally, going to these champs, I have raced the fastest man in the world already.
"I’ve seen him [Hughes], I’ve felt him. I don’t need to go into the championships with any fear because the guy who is the fastest in the world this year is in my backyard, he’s right here, right next to me. At the level we are at now, we need to have experiences.
So, what would define success for Amo-Dadzie in Budapest? Is it making the final, winning a medal or just being present?
"I think success is the mere fact that I had the courage once upon a time to give my talent to God, to do this, Amo-Dadzie says. "Does it mean I have no expectations and ambition going into the championships? No it doesn't mean that.
"We are in a sport, where we are obviously judged by the times, the trophies, the medals, by what it means I’m not going to judge myself by what I do or don't do in the next week. For me, there is one scripture I really like. With man, certain things are impossible, but with God it is possible. My story has an element of, it’s not logical.
"So you are not going to get any big bold claims out of me. I’m going to go out there, represent God well, put my best foot forward and yeah man I’m going to entertain, I’m going to have some fun out there."
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