After his landmark performance at the UK Championships, Romell Glave believes he can rise to the 100m occasion in Birmingham again. The British sprinter talks about the work that led to his big breakthrough and why can’t wait to face Marcell Jacobs again.

Romell Glave and his coach call it Project 40. The name refers to an area of the 100m that he has been placing real focus and energy on in the last couple of years – the first 40m of his race. 

“I know that my best part of the race is from 50m to 70m – so if I set up the race, that's going to help me to run my best and use my strength to my advantage,” he explains. 

The work has been painstaking, but it has been bearing fruit. Glave has never run faster than he is running now. At June’s UK Championships, the 26-year-old won his first British title in some style as he held off the late charge of national record-holder Zharnel Hughes and beat the likes of former world indoor champion Jeremiah Azu and Louie Hinchliffe to hit the line first. While time isn’t everything when it comes to championship racing, on this occasion there was great significance to the winning mark, too. Glave had broken the 10-second barrier six times before, but never under legal wind conditions, so to run 9.98 (0.5) was big.

To book his place on the British team for the European Championships and a return to that same Alexander Stadium track added to the satisfaction of a job well done. Now comes the really difficult task of doing it again. 

“That was my best race execution to date,” says Glave of his British title win. “I want to be able to replicate that on the bigger occasion. Going to the British trials, I knew what I wanted to do and what I needed to do, and I was feeling like a kid again. That feeling, that freedom, that excitement going to it – it helped me to have that calm mind going into the blocks. 

“Regardless of who is in the race, I was like, ‘I need to focus on myself. It's just about me. The occasion is about me, not other people in the race. It’s not about who is a good starter, who is a good top end runner. What about me? What is going to bring out the best of Romell?’.

“That's what I wanted to showcase in that race, and to also solidify what I've been doing in training – working on those first 30 to 40m and to showcase that in the race that matters the most. It’s been a good learning curve, on reflection, and seeing how far I’ve come – changing things, trying things – and now I'm able to have that clear identity of where I want to be and what I've been working on for the last two to three years.”

That work has been done in tandem with his coach Michael Afilaka and Glave’s wider team. 

As well as the physical preparation, a lot of emphasis has been placed on the mental side of the sport, too. There has been a lot of self reflection and Glave cites an example from earlier this year to highlight just how much he is learning. 

During the indoor season, he produced an impressive 60m win in Stockholm over Azu and Jamaica’s Olympic silver medallist Kishane Thompson in a personal best of 6.51. At the subsequent UK Indoor Championships, however, it was the Welshman who came out on top and runner-up Glave left Birmingham frustrated with his performance. 

“Me and my psychologist, we talk about things that go right and things that go wrong when I'm performing,” says Glave. “So there are different characteristics to what I think about when I'm performing at my best, and what I think about when I'm not performing at my best. We've been able to find a formula [to help with that] and it's been working.

“For example, during the indoor season, I put a lot of pressure on myself to perform and, even though I was British lead, I didn't feel like I was ready for the occasion. I had to look in the mirror, be truthful to myself and know there are things that I need to work on mentally, because I know that I'm one of the best but sometimes I might just lose that split second of focus. My reaction was so awful because I was trying to do more, rather than doing what I know.

“If you're thinking about a lot of things, trying to do more, trying to do something else and moving away from what you know or what you are about – your identity – that can be a big factor in running your best race and performing at your best level, your optimal level.

And when I say running with freedom and feeling like a kid again, it's like running with no burden, no stress – to flourish in the occasion and the opportunity. That’s been the big change in my mindset.”

The European Championships presents just such an opportunity in which to flourish. Two years ago in Rome, Glave came away with a bronze medal – reeled in by the eventual winner Marcell Jacobs and his fellow Italian Chituru Ali in the 100m – but, even now, he thinks it should have been more. 

“The main focus in that first 10-20 metres was that I needed to be ahead to have a chance of winning,” recalls Glave of that night at the Stadio Olimpico. “And I did what I wanted to do. But, because it was my first time front-running, I wasn't used to it. Leading from the front was a new situation for me, and that taught me a lot of lessons about how to stay calm and focus on what I need to do. I learned a lot from that.”

He has also learned a lot from his more recent jousts with Jacobs. Glave beat the former Olympic champion at the Savona Meeting back in May thanks to a run of 9.88 (2.7), while the tailwind was even stronger when the two met again at the Raiffeisen Austrian Open at the beginning of last month. On that occasion Jacobs clocked 9.67 (4.1) – the second-fastest 100m time ever recorded under any conditions. Glave took second in 9.76.

The Italian, fastest on the continent this year, will be going for his third successive European title when they meet again in Birmingham and the Jamaican-born Briton can’t wait. 

“I've raced Jacobs twice this year,” says Glave. “The first one, I got the best of him and, in the second one I didn't execute my best race. If someone had told me a couple years ago that I would be beaten by someone that went 9.67, the third-fastest time ever, I would be laughing, but also I wasn't happy. I didn't get the win, but also I didn't execute my race. I ran his race. But I can take positives from that learning experience going into Birmingham because I would rather lose a race than lose a championship.”

He adds: “When I come up against Jacobs, I feel that excitement. Every time I face him, I have that excitement. I want to race him. I want to compete against him, because it's like a [chance for] redemption. In 2024 I could have got that gold medal but he just snuck it off me. I was like, ‘I'll be ready this time around. I will prepare the best way possible’.

“I always want to face him when he's at his best and I always look forward to racing him and competing against him so there are going to be fireworks going into Birmingham.”

While Glave’s progress has been significant in 2026, he is all too aware of how quickly things can change at the top level. He was unable to build on that European bronze in 2024 due to “a fracture in my back that got inflamed”, meaning that being able to earn another British vest and reaching the semi-finals of the 100m at the world championships in Tokyo last year represented a major achievement in itself. Since he first burst on to the scene as a teenager – he was the world's fastest 17-year-old in 2017 when he ran 10.21 – there have been trials and tribulations to come through. Now, though, he can see a path leading towards his targets. 

“Sometimes, as an athlete, you might want to chase the times, the accolades but I realise that just by continuing to be consistent, upgrading myself mentally and physically, and adapting to different situations will allow me to get what I want,” says the Croydon Harrier.

“Over the last couple years, I've been showing a bit too much respect to my competitors, especially the Brits, but now I'm the best in the country. I might say that, but I have to show it as well. I want to be the best in the world. I want to compete against the best people in the world but, in order for me to do that, I have to be the best in my country and now the aim is to be the best in Europe.”