British sprinter Bianca Williams accuses police of racial profiling

The 26-year-old European and Commonwealth relay gold medallist and Portuguese 400m record holder Ricardo dos Santos were stopped in a vehicle in the Maida Vale area - where officers were patrolling because of an increase in youth violence.

Dos Santos, who plans to meet lawyers on Monday, said that he had been stopped by police as many as 15 times since changing car to a Mercedes in November 2017.

The couple claim the police handcuffed both of them - with their three-month-old son in the car - and conducted a weapons search that lasted 45 minutes when returning home from a training session on Saturday.

A video of the incident showed them protesting that they had done nothing wrong with Williams screaming "my son is in the car".

Williams and Dos Santos have told the Times they plan to lodge a formal complaint about the incident.

The incident was first raised by 1992 100m Olympic champion Linford Christie, who accused the police of abusing their power and institutional racism.

"It’s always the same thing with Ricardo," Williams told the Times. "They think he’s driving a stolen vehicle, or he’s been smoking cannabis. It’s racial profiling. The way they spoke to Ricardo, like he was scum, dirt on their shoe, was shocking."

A police statement said: "Officers from the Directorate of Professional Standards have reviewed both footage from social media, and the body-worn video of the officers, and are satisfied that there is no concern around the officers' conduct."

The police statement said that at about 13:25 BST on Saturday, officers from the Territorial Support Group "witnessed a vehicle with blacked-out windows that was driving suspiciously, including driving on the wrong side of the road".

The statement continued: "They indicated for it to stop but it failed to do so and made off at speed. The officers caught up with the vehicle when it stopped on Lanhill Road. The driver initially refused to get out of the car."

No arrests were made. Williams and Dos Santos, who are both training for the Tokyo Olympics, said that a written report given to them by the police did not mention driving on the wrong side of the road and that they were stopped in a single car-width road.