ZHARNEL HUGHES has become the world’s fastest man in 2023 after receiving help from Usain Bolt.
But the Team GB star once had to use his pace to race away from a gunman but now wants to be a pilot.
The 27-year-old completed the 100m in 9.83 seconds this year, smashing Olympic legend Linford Christie’s over 30-year record, making him Britain’s quickest ever sprinter.
That time was also the best so far in 2023 and now Hughes harbours the hopes of Great Britain on his shoulders as he heads into the World Championships in Budapest.
Despite still yet to equal Bolt’s world record 9.58s from 2009, he trains under iconic coach Glen Mills, who guided the Jamaican to his eight Olympic gold medals.
Bolt, despite being retired, remains a regular at the facility in Jamaica and Hughes is over the moon to be at close quarters with the superstar.
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He told the Telegraph: “Usain is somebody I always looked up to. Every time we see each other in the gym, because he goes to the same gym as I, we always fist bump and ask each other how we are doing.
“It’s just a great privilege to be in the same company that he once was.”
However, while in Bolt’s homeland of Jamaica, Hughes also suffered a near-death experience in 2018 with an armed robber while in the car park of the training base.
Hughes said: “I was at the trunk of my car putting on my sneakers and I saw this shadow in front of me. Then this guy is asking me for my phone and wallet.
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“I was thinking, 'What?' and then I see his gun. So then it is, like, 'OK, is this actually happening to me?'
“It was one of those panic situations. The gun is pointing at my stomach and my face and then I just got the smallest window because, I don’t know, he was looking away for a second. I took my chance.
“I just jumped down and hid under a car. Then someone else, a licensed firearm holder, came and fired back at him.
“Shots were being exchanged and the guy starts running away and firing wild shots all over the place. Other athletes were jumping down.
“When it was over, I got out and saw they were lying in the gravel, under the benches. There was a girl who uses the track and she was having an asthma attack.
“I went to my car and I was sitting there, thinking, 'What was that?' It was all just a few seconds but, wow.”
Hughes was amazingly back on the track within half an hour of that terrifying ordeal, showing his undying passion for the sport, but he also has another career goal that he would like to take off in the future.
He uses a flight simulator to practise flying aircraft in his spare time and one day he would like to become a pilot.
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Hughes added: “That’s what keeps me happy, that’s what keeps me relaxed.
“I would love to fly on a Gulfstream 650. That’s a beautiful aircraft.”
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