Reece Prescod is remembering his last visit to Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium, back in 2018.

“I had just come back from Europeans where I got 100m silver by a small margin and, with a home crowd, I wanted to go one better.

“I have this personal thing when athletes from another country come to the UK.

“I wanted to stand up for us and and let the overseas guys know when they come to the UK we are putting up a fight.

“I was in good shape, running really well, sub 10 seconds every meet.

“Those were my golden years.”

Prescod, 26, has never been faster than that day in Birmingham.

Fifth at halfway, a trademark express finish brought him home in 9.94 seconds. The thinnest of margins – a single thousandth of a second – separated him from Christian Coleman in first, but he was well clear of Noah Lyles in third.

The following year, Coleman and Lyles won world gold. Prescod’s path has been different.

A torn hamstring wrecked 2019, a global pandemic ruined 2020 and a false start ended his Olympics in the semi-finals in 2021.

There’s been some bad luck certainly, but there have been bad decisions as well.

A switch to train in Florida under veteran American coach Mike Holloway in 2021 lasted only a few months.

On his return to London, Prescod struggled to stick to the straight and narrow. A fast-food habit slowed him down. Late-night online Call of Duty sessions distracted him from his on-track mission.

On Saturday, Prescod is back at the Alexander Stadium for the first time since that personal best performance four years ago. Then he was a Diamond League fixture. Now, the world has moved on and he is an underdog looking to cause an upset.

“Sometimes, when you are moving at such a fast pace, you take things for granted,” he said.

“You enjoy the finer things of life at the top meets. When you come out of that it is like a football team getting relegated.

“I feel like I am a West Ham or another mid-table side. I have to work my way up slowly, try to get to the top of the UK, get the qualifying standards and then go against the best in the world, that Champions League level.

“I want everything now, but you can’t rush the process.

“I don’t game anymore really. My nutrition was a problem, but I am signed up with a meal service now. I am a regular at the wellness centres, I go to cryotherapy two or three times a week and I have got a good mattress for my bed. I’m trying to find all those 1% gains.

“When I am racing now, I might see a 10.3 or 10.2 – a time I am not used to seeing – but if it is better than last week, it is going in the right direction.

“When I finally see that nine again I am going to appreciate that hard work to get back there all the more.”

This weekend, Prescod and fellow Britons Adam Gemili, Zharnel Hughes and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake are up against a man who rarely records double digits.

American Trayvon Bromell clocked three of the four fastest times in the world last year, with a best of 9.76.

This season, the 26-year-old opened up his outdoor season with a 9.75, assisted by a wind that was only a fraction over the legal limit.

Prescod believes the lockdowns and disruption that have kept British sprinters from overseas coaches and competition have helped their American rivals to steal a march.

“As a collective you can see the effect post-Covid that it has had on a lot of British sprinters,” he added.

“But we are all back in stable set-ups. We are all close friends and we want to keep pushing ourselves to get British sprinting back to where it needs to be.”

The current crop have history of punching above their weight when they come together in the relay. Mitchell-Blake held off the United States to win a superb world gold in 2017. A silver followed at Doha 2019, before they filled the second spot of the podium once more in Tokyo.

However, that Olympic medal has now gone and in its place is a vacancy.

CJ Ujah’s positive drugs test saw Britain stripped of silver and relations strained with some of his former team-mates.

Prescod, a fringe member of the relay squad since 2016, hopes to fill in. But as a friend, he has also reached out.

“It was his birthday a little time about, we spoke then,” he said of Ujah.

“He is cool, he is alright, he is dealing with matters off the track, Most of the boys are still friends with him and make sure he is cool.

“I have spoken to Darren [Campbell] and Christian [Malcolm] and they are keen to get me involved this year.

“For me, it is about making sure my skills are on point and my discipline is good and delivering on the last leg. The best version of Reece needs to be on the track to do that.”

As Birmingham 2018 showed, the best version of Reece is one of the best anywhere.