Matthew Hudson-Smith

2 x World Championships Medalist 2 x European 400m Champion

Matthew Hudson-Smith was born on 26 October 1994 in Wolverhampton, England.  He started his career being coached by Tony Hadley at the Birchfield Harriers club in Birmingham.   A talented junior athlete Matthew won the English Schools 200m title in 2013 having finished runner-up in 2011 and 2012.  He made his debut for GBR at the 2013 European Junior Championships in Rieti winning bronze medals in the 200m and 4x400m. 

2014 was Matthew's breakout season.  Moving up to 400m he first broke 45 seconds at the Glasgow Diamond League meeting running 44.97 seconds to become only the second British teenager to break 45 seconds for the one lap event.  This qualified him for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow where he ran a great anchor leg in the 4x400m to help his team to the 4x400m gold.  At the European Athletics Championships in Zurich Matthew won silver in the 400m and gold in the 4x400m to highlight a great first season as a professional athlete.    

Matthew made another big breakthrough in 2016 when he won the British Championships, the London Diamond League and qualified for the Olympic Games 400m final in Rio by running a personal best time of 44.48 secs in the semi-final.  He also anchored GBR to bronze in the 4x400m at the European Championships.

After placing 9th in the World Championships in 2017 he helped GBR to bronze in the 4x400m with a strong first leg run. 

The 2018 season was a fruitful one for Matthew that saw him collect another major title. After winning the British 400m Championships he headed to the European Championships in Berlin as a hot favourite. He lived up to his billing as he collected the European title and then ran a strong leg for the British team that took silver medals in the 4x400m relay.  

A promising start to the 2019 season saw Matthew win his fifth consecutive British title and place second at the Diamond League meeting in Brussels, meaning hopes were high heading to the World Championships in Doha. Sadly, injury struck and Matthew was not able to complete his heat.

The 2020 and 2021 seasons were severley disrupted due to the global pandemic which meant that 2022 saw the unique situation of three major championships in one season. Not only did Matthew compete at each of these, he medalled at them all. Starting at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Matthew took bronze in the 400m. Next, at his home Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, he took silver in the 400m. Finally, at the European Championships in Munich he took gold in both the 400m and 4x400m relay. Matthew kicked off this remarkable season by setting a new British 400m Record of 44.35 seconds at the Prefontaine Meeting in Eugene.  

Matthew took this momentum in to 2023 and despite having to battle injury for much of the year was still able to continue his upward trajectory. At the World Athletics Championships in Budapest he won the silver medal in the 400m, on route to which in the semi-final he broke the long standing European Record setting new figures of 44.26 seconds.  

Personal Bests:

  • 200m: 20.56
  • 400m: 44.26 AR

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