Hurdler Minshull wants to turn bronze into gold

Coventry 400 metres hurdler Jake Minshull says he wants to build on the "surreal" experience of winning a bronze medal at the World Relay Championships last month and have more success at the Commonwealth Games and European Championships this summer.

The 21-year-old lives in Coventry and runs for the city's Godiva club, and is preparing for British Championships later this month in Birmingham.

Minshull, who is at university in Birmingham, was part of the British quartet, which also included Alex Haydock-Wilson, Lina Nielsen and Yemi Mary John, that finished third in the mixed 4x400m final in Botswana in May, as they held off the challenge of Kenya to take bronze behind the USA and Jamaica.

The World Relay Championships were Minshull's first senior event with Team GB and he said their moment of glory was incredible.

"As I came out I couldn't hear myself think, it was so loud, it was on another level, I couldn't hear anything," he told BBC Midlands Today.

"But just being in the buzz of that I was like 'right I've got my GB kit on, I'm in that crowd, I need to go and perform now' and yeah I did it.

"I knew I had Yemi on last leg so I was like, right, if I can get her in a good position here I know she can go and do her thing.

"She did but as soon as she crossed the line, it was a bit like surreal to start with, I was like 'I've just got a medal'."

After dabbling with the pentathlon and 800 metres, Minshull settled on becoming a one-lap hurdler and ran the second fastest time by a British athlete this season - 48.87 seconds - in Belgium last month.

He is currently ranked 39th in the world.

"As I got into running more, the hurdles seem to be good and I'm good at four [hundred metres flat], so why not try four hurdles?" he said.

"It's not easy especially when you're coming down this home straight with a lactic [acid build up]. There's no other event really like it, but I feel like from doing multi-events I've sort of got the knack of hurdling."

With the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow before the European Championships are held in the UK for the first time, in Birmingham in August, Minshull said challenging the best in those events was "in his sights".

"They are both on my radar.

"The Commonwealths were in Australia before, so it makes it a bit easier being in Glasgow and Birmingham.

"Birmingham does kind of feel like home to me."

Minshull will also be putting out of his mind a fall in the home straight when well set for a medal in last year's British Championships in Birmingham, when he competes on the same track.

"I fell over but I felt like I paced the race really well. It was really windy on the back straight and you can get that here sometimes," he said.

"I know how to deal with it but I measured myself well for the first 200 and then I came pushing through going into the home straight, but I felt so good, I literally just clipped hurdle 10.

"Hopefully I can amend that this year because I know I know gold was on the cards last year, so it's definitely on this year."

Despite his excitement, Minshull, whose personal best in the 400m hurdles is 48.74 seconds, said he is keen to take his career one step at a time, with Kris Akabusi's British record of 47.82 seconds and the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028 as potential targets.

"I feel like everyone says the same. They want to become Olympic champion, want to start breaking records, but yeah I feel like realistically, I'm making the step each year," he said.

"This year we've got Euros and Commies [Commonwealth Games] and we want to get to that elusive 47 [seconds] in the four hurdles.

"There's a few of us that are eyeing that up this year but hopefully I'll be one of those to try and get to that first, and then, moving forward, we've got LA in '28 and then Brisbane in 2032, so as I'm still pretty young those are ones I'll be eyeing up for the next few years."