He is a member of the
Coventry Godiva Harriers athletics club and was coached by Tony Lester. Early in his career he was successful at both 100 and 200-metre distances, winning English Schools and European Junior titles at both, but in later years he concentrated mostly on the longer distance. He was also a regular member of both the British and, at the
Commonwealth Games, English 4 × 100-metre sprint relay teams, to some considerable success. He is a current
Commonwealth Games record holder in the relay event. The most notable achievement of his career came at the
2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. There Devonish, along with
Jason Gardener,
Darren Campbell and
Mark Lewis-Francis, won a gold medal in the
4 × 100 m. relay, where the quartet defeated the pre-race favourites, United States team, by just 0.01 seconds, in a season's best of 38.07. At the British Championships (and team trials for the
2006 European Championships) in July 2006, Devonish became the first man since
Linford Christie in 1988 to win both the 100 m and 200 m races at the event. At the championship finals, he took the bronze medal in the 200 m. Devonish retained his 100 m title at the
British Championships the following year. For the 2007 season Devonish improved his performance in the 100 m with a new personal best and competed in this event at the
2007 World Championships in
Osaka rather than the 200 m which he had previously specialised in. Devonish finished 6th in the 100 m final. Devonish represented
Great Britain at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. He competed at the
4 × 100 metres relay together with
Simeon Williamson,
Tyrone Edgar and
Craig Pickering. In their qualification heat they were disqualified and eliminated. On 22 August 2009, Devonish was a member of the
Great Britain and Northern Ireland men's
4 × 100 m relay team that took bronze at the
IAAF World Championships in Berlin with a season's best of 38.02.
Harry Aikines-Aryeetey,
Simeon Williamson and
Tyrone Edgar ran the other legs. Devonish was a five-times
British 200 metres champion after winning the British
AAA Championships title in 1997, 2001, 2002 and 2006 and the
2007 British Athletics Championships. ==Post-athletics==