Tokyo 2020 Olympics: When does Middlesbrough's Richard Kilty compete in the 4x100m relay?

DOHA, QATAR - OCTOBER 05: Adam Gemili, Zharnel Hughes, Richard Kilty and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Great Britain celebrate silver in the Men's 4x100 Metres Relay during day nine of 17th IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 at Khalifa International Stadium on October 05, 2019 in Doha, Qatar. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)

Richard Kilty is part of Team GB’s 4x100m relay squad chasing Olympic silverware this summer – but when will he be running?

Tokyo 2020 Olympics has so far blessed us with some brilliant Team GB moments including Tom Daley winning his first ever gold medal, Adam Peaty becoming a two-time Olympic champion and Duncan Scott and Tom Dean making it the first time since 1908 that two male British swimmers have finished on the Olympic podium together.

The athletics tournament is well underway, with 19-year-old Keely Hodgkinson winning gold in the Women’s 800m yesterday.

However the name on everyone’s lips around here will be Middlesbrough’s Richard Kilty, representing Team GB in the men’s 4x100m relay.

GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA - APRIL 14: Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, Reuben Arthur, Zharnel Hughes and Richard Kilty of England celebrate as they win gold in the Men's 4x100 metres relay final during athletics on day 10 of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games at Carrara Stadium on April 14, 2018 on the Gold Coast, Australia. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Who is Richard Kilty?

Richard Kilty is a 31-year-old British sprinter, born in Stockton-on-Tees.

Kilty - also known as the ‘Teesside Tornado' – competes in the 60 metres, 100 metres and 200 metres and also represents England and Great Britain in the 4x100m relay.

As a youngster Kilty broke the age-12 UK record for 60 metres in 2001 and went on to compete for GB throughout youth levels. The sprinter originally trained alone in Middlesbrough before moving to London in 2011 to train under coach Linford Christie.

Kilty has a long list of medals in the 4x100m relay so far – the 2011 European U23 Championships (silver), 2014 World Relays (bronze), 2014 (silver) and 2018 (gold) Commonwealth Games – and has won pretty much everything, individually and with his relay team, that an athlete could dream of.

The only thing he is yet to add to his accolades is an Olympic medal – and will be keen to make that happen in his second Olympics this summer.

When will Richard Kilty be competing?

Richard Kilty will be competing in the 4x100m relay alongside Adam Gemili, Zharnel Hughes and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake.

They will compete in their heat in the early hours of Thursday morning (August 5 – 03:30 BST), meaning anyone wanting to support a local athlete is going to have to have a pretty late night – or early morning.

If Kilty’s team are to progress to the final race then that will take place on Friday August 6 at 14:50 BST. That’s more like it!

While in Tokyo, Kilty spoke to BBC Radio Tees Sport on their chances of a medal.

“If you look at Athletics across the board as a whole sport, who are you gold medal chances?" Kilty said.

“The people you may consider for medals Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Dina Asher-Smith, the likes of Laura Muir, people like that, they are the people you’d look to win medals but an actually gold medal, I really do feel the mens 4x100m is our strongest chance of an Olympic gold medal in the whole of the sport of athletics in the Olympic Games.

“Our chances of a gold medal are sky high in the relay and there’s nothing more important to me in the rest of my athletics career than to bring an Olympic medal back to Teesside and back to my family because that’s the only medal I’m missing in the whole sport."