Zharnel Hughes, the 'new Usain Bolt', cleared to run for Britain

Usain Bolt's teenage training partner, Zharnel Hughes, has been cleared to represent Great Britain in athletics events, but the decision has reignited the row over "plastic Brits".

Hughes, who last year broke Jamaican sprinter Yohan Blake's 100m junior record, is one of five athletes to be declared eligible for Britain. The others are Swedish high jumper Victoria Dronsfield and American hurdlers Cindy Ofili and Shante Little, plus 400m runner Montene Speight.

The news "revives the plastic Brit debate, which blew up when another five athletes switched allegiance to Great Britain in the build-up to London 2012", reports the Daily Mail. They were accused of taking the place of other athletes who had been developed in the UK.

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But the Mail notes that British Athletics, the governing body in this country, insists it "did not actively recruit any of the five athletes".

World and European 60m champion Richard Kilty was unimpressed and vented his anger on Twitter in a post that was later removed. He later added that other British athletes "feel exactly the same as me but daren't speak out".

Hughes is the least controversial of the new Brits, and the most exciting. He comes from Anguilla, a British overseas territory which is not recognised by the International Olympic Committee.

"Hughes has every right to represent Britain," says Mike Costello of the BBC, who points out that Anguilla has the same status as the Falklands. "I'm not sure there would be the same kind of dissent against an athlete from the Falkland Islands," he adds.

The 19-year-old has been dubbed the "new Usain Bolt" says The Guardian, which notes that he finished just three-hundredths of a second behind Bolt in the 200m at a Diamond League meeting this month.

"There had been fears Hughes might opt to represent Jamaica, where he moved to study and train alongside Bolt and Yohan Blake," says the paper. "Further comparisons with Bolt have been made because of the sprinter's slender 6ft 3in frame."

Ofili is the sister of hurdler Tiffany Porter and has dual American and British nationality, while Little and Dronsfield both have parents born in the UK and Speight holds a British passport.