Kyle Langford has the X-Factor and could spring a surprise medal for Britain on Tuesday evening, according to his former mentor.
The 21-year-old from Watford was tipped as no more than a 50-1 shot to make tonight’s final of the 800metres.
But Tom Bedford, his former mentor and the ex-training partner of Mo Farah, believes Langford is destined for success.
“Kyle has got the X-Factor,” said Bedford, the son of former 10,000metre world record holder, Dave. “I remember when he first qualified for a major championships he said he was going to do this and that and people laughed. But I didn’t disagree with that confidence.
“Take tonight’s final. None of the medallists from Rio are in the race and Kyle can definitely get a medal.
“I’d be very surprised if he doesn’t get medals of some sort on the world stage during his career.”
Bedford was brought in to mentor Langford when he was 16, in effect to “help him make the right life decisions”. Langford, now guided by Jon Bigg, first emerged in the senior ranks at the end of the 2014 when attending his first British Athletics training camp in Iten, Kenya.
It brought him in contact with 800m world record holder David Rudisha, with whom he shared training runs.
“I always played sport. I played football for the school, some rugby and cricket but I was never committed,” he said.“But with athletics I was committed straight away. I’d miss football training one week or two but athletics I hardly missed a single day since I started.”
Speaking at the end of 2014, Langford was ambitious from the outset: “I want to go the whole way,” he said. “I want to have a long career and a good career.”
