Matt Maher: Matt Hudson-Smith out to inspire as athletics grasps centre stage

It isn’t often football allows other sports much of a look-in, yet the month between the conclusion of the World Cup and the start of the Premier League offers a rare window in the calendar.

Cricket, however, has chosen this period to swap Test matches for the divisive and increasingly unpopular Hundred.

Athletics, meanwhile, is gearing up for its biggest few days of the year which will take place right here in the West Midlands and broadcast live across BBC television.

The European Athletics Championships is the most significant international sporting event the region has hosted since the Commonwealth Games, one of the few indisputable legacies of the latter which even just four years on feels like it happened in a different era, a moment in time when everything seemed possible and you didn’t have to worry about bin collections.

Make no mistake, this is rare and special. It’s also historic, the first time the UK has ever hosted the European Championships since it was first held 92 years ago.

Granted, the competition might not have the same depth or glamour as the worlds. Yet there will still be some big stars on show, not least pole vault phenomenon Mondo Duplantis, Dutch superstar Femke Bol and Great Britain’s Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson.

Of course, the West Midlands has its own hero in the shape of Matthew Hudson-Smith, who returns to the place where it all began. They’ve even named a stand at the Alexander Stadium after the former Birchfield Harrier for the duration of the event.

Hudson-Smith, 400 metre silver medallist at the Olympics two years ago, is a genuinely world-class talent who is the clear favourite to win gold.

With that comes obvious pressure. He will not need reminding the odds on him winning Commonwealth gold on his home track four years ago were similarly short and things did not quite go to plan.

Hudson-Smith has not won a major championship gold since becoming a two-time European champion in Munich four years ago. The 31-year-old from Wolverhampton should have no shortage of motivation.

If there is a disappointment, it comes from the fact from a Birmingham and Black Country standpoint, Hudson-Smith is very much flying the flag solo.

Maybe there should be some serious questions asked about why, in athletics terms, the region is not exactly punching its weight? The next few days, at least, would appear to offer an ideal chance to inspire the next generation.