The pair may even have British 100m champion Louie Hinchliffe and compatriot Jeremiah Azu, Jamaicans Yohan Blake and Ackeem Blake, and South African Akani Simbine for firm in an enchanting pre-Video games showdown.
Nonetheless, Hughes will probably be certainly one of solely two athletes on the beginning line but to run beneath 10 seconds this 12 months – which has been disrupted by harm, as he sustained a grade one hamstring tear firstly of June.
This season began promisingly when he clocked 19.96 seconds to safe a 200m victory over former world 100m champion Fred Kerley in Jamaica in Could.
However he was seen limping away from the monitor following a ten.09sec efficiency in Kingston, the place he’s based mostly and trains beneath Glen Mills, the previous coach of eight-time Olympic champion Usain Bolt and two-time 100m runner-up Yohan Blake.
Denied the possibility to compete on the European Championships and defend his British titles, Hughes says he not solely recovered rapidly from the setback however returned an improved athlete after a meticulous effort to strengthen his whole physique.
“By the top of my first week again in coaching, we had been already sprinting and my coach seen one thing had modified. My method appeared higher, I appeared stronger,” Hughes says.
“Coach mentioned: ‘I don’t suppose the harm did an excessive amount of – it truly looks as if you bought higher.'”
Hughes, who additionally took down Linford Christie’s 30-year British 100m mark in 9.83secs final 12 months, is counting down the times till he will get the chance for the redemption he has needed since that fateful night time in Tokyo three years in the past.
When Hughes suffered calf cramp as he set himself in his beginning block moments earlier than the final Olympic 100m closing, he knew immediately that it was over.
Accepting the pink card proven to him for his false begin with a nod of resignation, his disqualification official, the Anguilla-born Briton was escorted away from the monitor, his goals in tatters.
In Paris, Hughes hopes to place the document straight.
“I might like to rewrite the historical past books after what occurred in Tokyo,” says Hughes, who would watch Italy’s Lamont Marcell Jacobs declare a shock gold.
“I imagine that [I would have won that final]. I felt it. I felt I used to be prepared. Clearly, when that occurred, all the things stopped.
“Just lately I learn a saying: ‘You might need been delayed, however you’re not denied.’ I imagine that.
“When it is my time, will probably be my time.”
Watch protection of the London Diamond League on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport web site and app from 13:15 BST on Saturday, 20 July.
