Olympic champion and world record-holder at 400m hurdles tells AW he isn’t planning to reduce his power output any time soon

Karsten Warholm won’t die wondering. This is a man completely committed to his cause and it doesn’t need an expert observer to recognise this most elemental of athletes transfers every ounce of his being to the track. 

Exhibit A: the 400m final at this year’s European Indoor Championships in Istanbul. The man who is best known for being the 400m hurdles world record-breaking Olympic champion is pretty useful over the flat, too, and was the undoubted favourite to take gold. 

He wasn’t about to start playing the percentages, though, and catapulted himself out of the blocks like a man possessed. The first half was covered in a near suicidal 20.84 (an outright 200m PB), with the second lap clocked at a considerably more painful 24.51 as the lactic swept through his body and he tumbled across the line with the competition closing in. When he got to his feet, though, Warholm had finished as the champion. 

As athletics writer Cathal Dennehy observed at the time: “Karsten Warholm is the most violent runner I’ve ever seen. It’s like he hates the track with every step.” The athlete in question smiles and has a little laugh to himself at the memory of that final. He knows it wasn’t a race run by the book, but where’s the fun in that?

“The good thing that I take from it is how much I wanted to win that race,” Warholm tells AW from his home in Norway. “I gave it everything and also, in the end, when the lactic hits and you know you’re screwed, that’s a time where you can see me working for it. It shows how much I want this and how motivated I am. I’m not done yet and I don’t feel happy just yet. I like that. My reaction to it is to always fight for the gold medal.”

Karsten Warholm

Warholm is one of the most refreshing athletes to be found on the international circuit. Ask for his opinion on something and he will give it. There’s no skirting around any issue, rather a head-on approach which mirrors his running style. We start with that distinctive, “violent” operating style. It’s a description with which he doesn’t disagree and points to it being the very foundation for his considerable success.

“To be honest, I think there are a lot of athletes around the world that have bigger natural potential than myself,” says the two-time world champion. “I think it’s easy when you see a very gifted, talented runner who has all these things naturally, but me? It’s something I have created over the years with training.

“It’s always been me running because I really want to win, I really want to achieve and it’s all this willpower going into my stride. Yes, I think it’s violent. It’s not something that I do on purpose but that’s the way I get out my speed and I think, from the first step, for me it’s a battle to win.

“When the gun goes, there are no jokes for me anymore. This is all the hours that I put in.

“I just run with a lot of aggression, but it works well for me.”

It is indeed an important point to make that such a relentlessly forceful template would not work for most athletes, yet for Warholm it does come with some important benefits. 

“A lot of athletes have tried my spike, but they can’t bend the [carbon] plate [within the shoe] – it’s the way I’m pushing with every step. That’s why I can have probably the stiffest carbon plate in the game, because there’s so much power in each step.

“It doesn’t always look technically out of the schoolbook but it’s the way that I run the fastest and I don’t want to change that.”

Karsten Warholm (Getty)

And with that we veer towards the next subject, which can be a touchy one in athletics circles: footwear. Some distance athletes have become increasingly willing to discuss the role being played by the rapid advances in shoe technology on the roads, but that is not necessarily a situation being replicated by track competitors when it comes to their spikes. 

Warholm, again, is an exception. He made headlines in the aftermath of his extraordinary Tokyo gold medal-winning run by calling Nike’s super spikes “bull***t” at a time when the American super brand were still very clear leaders in the technological race. 

The landscape has shifted, though, and Warholm has worked very closely with sponsors Puma to develop his current competition footwear. He now sees the battle between the brands as a positive step for the sport. 

He isn’t about to pretend the tools of his trade don’t make a difference, though, and there’s a reminder of his willingness to poke fun at himself, too, given that his Naio Nitro Elite spikes are adorned by a logo which reads #BS.

“I think I’m the only athlete that’s actually been honest about what shoes bring to the game but it’s a game changer for sure. But now I have the best shoe so I don’t care,” he grins.

“I was really stressed about this before going to Tokyo because you saw all of these prototypes coming up and nobody had control. The athletes didn’t have control, a lot of brands weren’t on top of it and I even think that it came as a surprise to Word Athletics.

“Now it’s open. Puma has given me great opportunities to make a shoe. I find it very interesting and I like to work with it but I will never say that the shoe doesn’t matter anymore because we are already past that point.

“How much does it matter? I don’t know and I think it’s very individual. Some shoes work on some people, some shoes don’t work on others. I have a very stiff plate and if I can bend that plate I’ll get a lot of energy out of it – that’s how the physics works – but if you were in my shoe you would probably just pull your Achilles or your calf and you wouldn’t get anything out of it.”

Karsten Warholm, Rai Benjamin and Alison dos Santos (Getty)

He continues: “In the beginning, I was just p****d because I didn’t have the shoes! But now every brand has had a couple of years to get into it and I think it’s good for the sport that a lot of brands find this as a competition between themselves.

“I won’t say that everything is bad. I’m just saying let’s not live in denial.”

Warholm would also like to see a change in attitude when it comes to the next subject of our conversation. There is a recurring discussion in elite athletics about getting more exposure and money for the sport and its top names, that those at the very sharp end are hard done by in comparison with other sports. 

The two-time European champion can understand the grumbles of discontent but insists the best way for athletes to change the situation is to work on doing something about it themselves.  

“I don’t think our sport is in as such bad shape as some people say and I also think that, whenever people are complaining, it doesn’t make the sport more sexy, does it?” he says. “Whenever somebody complains: ‘Oh people aren’t giving me money’ do you think somebody will just come with a big bag of money and give it to you? 

“You’ve got to step up and show what you can bring to the table and I think there’s a lot of great personality in the sport right now and there are a lot of cool meetings. The Diamond Leagues go to a lot of cool places, the World Championships are popular and whenever there’s track and field in the Olympics it’s sold out. 

“If there’s one thing I would stop doing it’s complaining. If we stop complaining and start doing something about it, we actually have a chance. It needs to be an interesting product.”

 

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He cites his own event as a prime example. It’s not so long ago, Warholm says, that the 400m hurdles was being considered as one of the events to be dropped from the Diamond League circuit when there was a reshuffle of the disciplines back in 2019. However, his exploits, not to mention those of women’s world record-holder Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Dutch star Femke Bol, have turned hurdling into a marquee event once more. 

“The 400m hurdles was in that [Diamond League] discussion and now they wouldn’t throw it out for anything,” adds Warholm. “That just shows that interest is created and it’s not going to be a constant and I think we need to bring that with us and create interesting projects.”

» This is an excerpt from an interview that appeared in the May issue of AW, which you can read here

The post Karsten Warholm – a force of nature appeared first on AW.

We speak to a masters athlete who has made a habit of destroying records since making a return to competitive running

“Get oot ma way, ya little b****rds!” thought Alastair Walker as he ran into a group of young rugby players who had casually strolled across his path during a local parkrun. 

The boys would have been oblivious to the fact they were impeding a multiple world champion. Walker may have dominated global masters athletics in recent years, but aside from his lean frame, he is far from a stereotype. After a successful senior career he initially gave up athletics at 38 years old before reigniting his love affair with the sport in 2016.

“I just couldn’t be bothered anymore’,” reflects the 2023 world M65 10km champion. “I thought, ‘I’m never going to run as a master’, it didn’t really rock my boat.” 

For 20 years he didn’t run a step.

At the peak of his career, Walker’s PBs included a 2:22 marathon, 66-minute half marathon, a sub-30 minute 10km and a 30-minute 10,000m, the latter good enough to rank him third in Scotland and earn a national vest. 

Alastair Walker (Bobby Gavin)

His return to the sport two decades later sparked an incredible resurgence, but only after a brutal reality check over a two-lap 10km race. “I thought I was going to win it,” he says. “Then I dropped out after the first lap. 

“That was it. I thought: ‘If I’m going to do this, I have to do it properly’. I raced a couple of times then I entered the Scottish Masters [Cross Country Championships] and finished a distant fourth (M60). That’s when it got serious.”

Walker version 2.0 has since racked up a series of major age-group titles including world, European, British and Irish Masters 5000m; Scottish Masters 10,000m; British and Scottish National 5km; world, European and British 10km; British & Irish, British and Scottish National Masters Cross Country; Scottish National, and Scottish National Short Course Cross Country. He was also voted European Masters Athletics long distance athlete of the year for 2022.

Most recently, he broke his own M65 world 10km best with 34:04 in April, adding to world records over 3000m indoors in January (9:57.18) and 5000m in August 2022 (16:36.59).

Alastair Walker

It’s no coincidence that his improvements have come since linking up with coach Cathy McCourt, a former Irish senior international and multiple world masters medal-winning athlete.  

The pair have made significant changes to his diet, including a move to being predominantly gluten-free. The intensity and quality of his training – which totals around 70 miles per week – has also increased.

Walker has changed his tune on masters athletics, too. While the lack of depth in his M65 age group is frustrating, particularly on the roads, he is regularly tested on the track by Paul Forbes, a middle-distance expert who represented Scotland three times at the Commonwealth Games. In fact, Forbes beat Walker – who was later disqualified – to the 1500m title at the 2023 World Masters Indoor Championships. “It’s a Coe/Ovett thing,” he laughs.

READ MORE: Paul Forbes interview

His goals for the remainder of 2023 include a fast track 10,000m and possibly an autumn half marathon, in addition to this summer’s European Masters Championships.

Beyond his title ambitions, he thrives on respect from younger athletes and an appreciation of the times he’s running. “I love that,” he says, his eyes lighting up. 

It is said that to be a champion, compete; to be a great champion, compete with the best; but to be the greatest champion, compete with yourself. It is an accurate summation of Walker’s two-part career. He is now his own biggest rival. 

This article first appeared in the May issue of AW magazine, which you can buy here

The post Super-vet Alastair Walker makes his mark appeared first on AW.

The British pair struck NCAA indoor gold in March and are making the most of the land of opportunity

Making the decision to travel to the US and spend years honing your craft, away from family and friends, is not an easy one to make. Imagine being that apprehensive teenager who finishes school, lands in a new city and has to get to know new people in another country – not to mention perform well in their chosen sport.

On the surface, it’s a daunting prospect but it’s a path which has been trodden by a number of British athletes over the years, who go there to sample the high levels of competition and experience facilities which far exceed what’s on offer in the UK. It’s not a recipe which works for everyone, of course, but Yusuf Bizimana and Amber Anning look right at home.

The British duo were gold medallists at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico (March 10-11).

The 22-year-old Bizimana finished second to Navasky Anderson in the men’s 800m final, but was promoted to first place after the Jamaican was disqualified. That meant he became the first Briton since Josh Kerr in 2018 to win an NCAA individual indoor title, having also run a personal best of 1:46.02.

Anning, also 22, was part of the Arkansas 4x400m foursome – alongside Joanne Reid, Rosey Effiong and Britton Wilson – which obliterated the NCAA record with 3:21.75 and set the fastest indoor 4x400m time in history, bettering the world record of 3:23.37 set by Russia in 2006.

In the process, Anning recorded the fifth-quickest indoor anchor leg ever, with 51.47.

Yusuf Bizimana (Ashleigh Young)

“It was the title I always dreamed about winning before I set foot in the US,” says Bizimana, who is going to study for a major in advertising at the University of Texas alongside his track career. “I set my goals really high and I know, deep down, if I give everything I have to achieve those things and surround myself with the right people, why not me?

“The reason why I left home was to become an NCAA champion. I completed the mission and it felt so good. It wasn’t the way that I wanted to win as I wanted to go crazy across the line. In that race, I’d gone to a place that I’d never been to before.”

Inspired by Kerr, who won an Olympic 1500m bronze medal in Tokyo just three years after his NCAA title victory, Bizimana is grateful for the high-level competition the US college scene provides.

“He [Kerr] was killing it in the NCAAs and coming back and making the [British] team,” Bizimana adds. “I liked that kind of route. The times set here are winning championships. I want to be a part of that. I could have stayed in London but I knew what I wanted and I had to move to the USA to compete with the best every week.”

Josh Kerr (Getty)

Such high-level competition across the NCAA circuit means that athletes are recording times that would be enough to win a BUCS title in the UK but wouldn’t make a podium in a US university/college level event.

For example, Anning’s personal best of 50.68 was the quickest by a British athlete in 22 years but her Arkansas team-mates Wilson and Effiong, plus Talitha Diggs and Irish star Rhasidat Adeleke, have all gone faster over 400m on the NCAA circuit just this year.

“It didn’t even feel that fast,” Anning tells AW, reflecting on Arkansas’ record-breaking relay. “That [the strength in depth in talent] is one of the reasons why I came to America and why my mum pushed me to come here.

“It’s tough but it just raises your mentality. I think sometimes you can get too comfortable with who you are so it’s nice that I’m not always the fastest and I’ve got to go out and improve myself all the time. It just builds a different confidence in you.

“Training with people like Britt [Wilson] is inspiring because I’m running with someone who ran the second-fastest time ever indoors [49.48] and a couple of months ago it would have been the world record. To see how she trains on a regular basis pushes all of us. To have that kind of group at our age is incredible.”

Amber Anning at Arkansas (Gigi Johnson)

Anning, who is studying operations management and is aiming to do a major in public relations and advertising, understands the significance of academia alongside athletic pursuits.

There is also an awareness that the US set-up provides an opportunity to grow a wider profile via social media. In an age where sponsorship deals and potential income are related to your digital presence, on top of performance, the duo have realised they have to capitalise.

Given NCAA track and field athletes can now use NIL deals – Name, Image and Likeness agreements which essentially means students can profit from their image – those who compete on the circuit are able to build large followings.

“So many people who aren’t even track fans have commented on my clothing,” Bizimana says, when asked about posting images of himself turning up to track meetings in suits. “That includes brands who have reached out about partnerships in fashion. So I was like cool, just me wearing suits gets exposure?

“In the UK, it’s very hard to do that. In the US, that system is already in place and you just have to perform to get that. If I was to do this in the UK they might even think I was going too far and there’s stigma attached to self-promotion.

“Imagine turning up in a suit at Lee Valley? I would do that. I don’t care because this is what people want to see and it’s what makes our sport more interesting. It’s what creates the hype.”

Yusuf Bizimana at NCAA Indoors (Matthew Flynn Parker)

Anning agrees with that assessment and regrets not starting up a vlog when she first arrived on a scholarship at LSU [Louisiana State University] in 2020, before moving to Arkansas last year.

“I tell my friends back at home, you’ve got to start posting more,” she adds. “It might be cringeworthy or cheesy but to be honest you have to cater towards your fans. They’re not following you because they’re concerned about what you look like, they care about track and wonder how you train and what you eat.

“Building your image is critical and starting off doing this stuff is super important. You’ve got to take advantage of everything that is out there and social media is something I need to be aware of more as you can maximise your image doing so.”

It hasn’t all been easy for the pair who left south London to pursue their dreams. Both Bizimana and Anning state they have come off a tough couple of years which included homesickness, self-doubt and questioning their decisions. There is a desire, however, to repay those who helped them to make the leap.

The long-term goal for both is the Paris 2024 Olympics but a more immediate focus is the chance to win titles at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Texas in early June.

“My family and quite a few people are coming out to it,” Bizimana says. “I’ve got to focus on what’s in front of me and right now it’s not about making teams or Diamond Leagues just yet.”

Amber Anning (Mark Shearman)

Anning, meanwhile, is targeting a place on the British 400m and 4x400m team at the World Championships in Budapest and wants to nail down the qualifying mark of 51.00 – her outdoor best is 51.78 – in the US.

Her ultimate aim is to break Christine Ohuruogu’s British 400m record of 49.41, which would be fitting as both were coached by the late Lloyd Cowan.

“Next year is a big one,” says Anning. “I just think track hasn’t been exciting for me over the past couple of years and now I’m around people who have those similar goals to me, it pushes you on to want greatness.”

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The Irish sprints talent will never forget her harsh introduction to life in Texas, but her American education is pushing her to greater heights

The shock was almost immediate. Rhasidat Adeleke was barely two weeks into her time at the University of Texas when she was faced with her first racing assignment. 

It was January 2021 and there had already been a lot for the then 18-year-old to contend with. The girl from Tallaght, just south of Dublin, had arrived in Austin mid-semester to start her scholarship and was just getting her bearings when the time came for a competitive test. 

Adeleke is an athlete around whom there has been high expectation for some time. European under-18 200m champion at the age of 15, she had become accustomed to being well ahead of the curve – and winning. The reality of her new surroundings was about to change all of that. 

“I had to get used to losing,” she laughs as she thinks back to the early days of life competing for the Longhorns. “I came from Ireland, I was in the European cycle, and I was very used to winning in that environment. Even before I came [to Texas], a lot of people I spoke to said: ‘You’re going to be a small fish in the big pond compared to being a big fish in a small pond’ and I was like: ‘Nah, I’ll be fine. I’ll be ready for it, I’m going to be good’. 

“In my very first competition I ran maybe 24.50 [it was 24.46 indoors] and I had run 23.80 when I was 15. I was so disappointed, I came dead last in my heat. It was a big shock to me, because I wasn’t used to losing by such a big margin and it was very embarrassing.

“Throughout the season, I got used to losing and I’d be really hard on myself, I’d be very upset, I’d be crying… all of that.”

University life, however, was providing a fantastic education.

“It helped me build up that aspect of short-term memory that is so important as a high performance athlete,” she continues. “You’re not always going to win and that’s something Flo [coach Edrick Floréal] would say: ‘You need to have short-term memory, because you might lose this meet, but you have another one next week so you have to get back into a good mindset and get that confidence back to be able to perform at a level that you need.’

“That was something I adapted to and now I’m at a place where I try to see competitions as an opportunity instead of a threat. 

“‘What if I lose? What if I don’t do well? What if other people don’t think I’m as good anymore?’. Instead of thinking those negative thoughts, I think of it as: ‘Let me show people what I’ve been working on, let me show people the talents I have’. This season I was looking at it as an opportunity more in a fun kind of way.

“That’s something I’ve been trying to tap into and I’ve really been enjoying it more. I want to keep that going throughout the rest of my career.”

Rhasidat Adeleke (Getty)

It’s a career which has already delivered a number of highlights and there is a very real prospect of more. Only a few months on from that particularly harsh introduction to the NCAA circuit, Adeleke became European Under-20 100m and 200m champion. Last summer, she got her first taste of major senior championships when reaching the semi-finals of the 400m at the World Championships in Oregon before finishing fifth in the European 400m final in Munich. 

Her progress was being monitored by many but it is Adeleke’s performances in 2023 which have begun to really command attention, as she has set about destroying a chunk of the many Irish records she holds.

First to go was her indoor 200m mark when she clocked 22.52 in Albuquerque in January. Next was a 400m indoor performance of 50.33 in Lubbock in February. March also brought a slice of history when she became the first Irish athlete to win a medal in a sprint event at the NCAA championships, winning indoor 400m silver.

The standout moment so far, however, came during an eventful weekend in Florida which changed everything. On April 14, Adeleke ran 22.34 for 200m outdoors. On April 15, the full lap of the track was covered in 49.90. 

A truly historic 400m

Britton Wilson clocks a stunning 49.51 to win the 400m at the Tom Jones Invitational in Florida

Only three women ran faster in the whole of last year

Rhasidat Adeleke also smashes her own Irish NR with 49.90 pic.twitter.com/mqZqQcdI3j

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) April 15, 2023

No female Irish athlete had ever dipped under the fabled 50-second mark. This is the kind of progress which signals a genuine medal contender in the making. Adeleke believes she is now a far more formidable athlete, both mentally and physically. She is also paying heed to another major lesson learned in the heat of top-class battle. 

“One thing I learned from the World Championships was don’t give too much respect to the pros,” she says. “For example, when I was in my 400m semi-final, [eventual champion] Shaunae Miller-Uibo – someone who I have so much respect for and is definitely one of my favourite track athletes – was in the lane outside of me.

“Flo was like: ‘Don’t let her get away from you. If you want to qualify for the final, it’s top two only so you need to be right on her’. For some reason, there was this thought in my head that she was supposed to be in front of me, because of all her accolades, everything she’s achieved and how fast she’s run in previous years. So when the gun went off, and she was running away, I kind of let her because I thought she was supposed to be in front of me.”

Adeleke finished fourth and out of the running.

“That kind of changed my mindset that anyone is beatable – you just have to be able to commit to doing so,” she adds. “Regardless of anything that someone has achieved – Olympic gold medallist, world medallist – if you set your mind to it, you can do it so don’t count yourself out. 

“I took that approach when it came to the Europeans. I was racing against Femke [Bol] and Natalia [Kaczmarek], a bunch of athletes who had run really fast times and I just put us all on the same level, because we were all on the same level, we were all in the European final.

“I just tried to remove that preconception that these athletes are better than me, or they’re faster than me, and [gave myself permission] to just go for it. I kind of died at the end but at least I went for it. That was a really good learning experience for me.”

All of that will be poured into her efforts at this year’s World Championships in Budapest. 

“Because I have the time to back it up, that gives me more confidence that I can actually compete with these girls, instead of trying to convince myself that I can compete with them.”

First, however, will come the major focus of the collegiate season. The starting gun for the NCAA Championships will be fired on June 7 and, with this year’s edition being hosted at Adeleke’s home track in Austin, the pressure to perform will be real, particularly given that she was also part of the Longhorns line-up which won the 4x400m title at the Texas Relays last month. 

“[We’re] really close, [there’s a] a really good bond and that definitely helps us when it comes to competitions, because we’re all supporting each other,” she says of the set-up. 

“It’s really good to be in such a positive environment where everyone works with each other to help each other move forward. I couldn’t imagine myself at any other school than Texas. I absolutely love it here.”

Peaking for those championships and then doing likewise in Budapest later in the summer will be no easy task for the student whose degree focuses on Corporate Communication. A similar scenario could lie in wait next year ahead of what Adeleke hopes will be the summer in which she becomes an Olympian.

She may well also graduate in 2024 but, should the right opportunity come along, turning professional before then could become a new reality. The 20-year-old insists it’s not something to which she is giving much thought right now. Her preference is to focus on the long-term plan of overcoming the disappointment of not being selected for Tokyo. That still rankles but has also fuelled a desire not be to be denied again. 

“Now I won’t rely on trying to chase a time or trying to be on a relay team,” says Adeleke, whose love of beauty and fashion means she also harbours ambitions of a modelling career. “I’ll be going out there for myself and being able to do this for me and the people who support me and the people who have helped me to get to this point. It’s just so much bigger than I am. There are so many people who want it for me.”

Adeleke’s profile continues to grow back home. It’s only when she receives messages from her friends and family about the publicity her performances have been generating in Ireland that the realisation really starts to dawn. 

“I’m very naive sometimes to the fact that I’m becoming a bigger name,” she says. 

So would that 15-year-old who made such a big breakthrough on the European stage be surprised at what her world looks like now?

“To be honest, I was always very ambitious,” says Adeleke. “When I was at that stage, I was already looking to the next thing. My 15-year-old self would have been really happy with the way that I’ve progressed and the decisions I’ve made. I think she would be happy because I’m following the plan that she gave me.” 

This feature first appeared in the May issue of AW magazine, which you can buy here

The post Amazing rise of Rhasidat Adeleke appeared first on AW.

Former GB hockey player is now lighting up the track and is curious to know how far she can go in the sport

Kate Axford had a dream of representing Great Britain at the Paris Olympics on the hockey pitch but now has ambitions of doing it in athletics.

The 24-year-old decided to switch sports after a labral tear in her hip joint – an injury she sustained when changing direction in training – which meant she couldn’t handle the force of sharp movement that you need to play hockey.

It forced Axford to re-think. She turned to running and started training under the stewardship of Charlie Dickinson at Belgrave Harriers at the end of March.

Since then Axford has clocked 16:39 over 5km, won the Comeback 5000m at Battersea in 15:49.79 (April 23) and took victory in her first ever 3000m race at the Loughborough International in 9:06.02 (May 21).

Axford was also chosen to represent England Athletics in Loughborough and the former hockey pro, who was contracted with Great Britain up until January, can’t quite believe how the last few months have gone.

“Not leaving anything out on the hockey pitch or track is my mentality.”

Kate Axford was a GB hockey player but injury meant she switched sports to athletics

She has now run 16:39 over 5km and yesterday won the 3000m at Loughborough in 9:06.02

@TimAdams76 pic.twitter.com/8CFoLLqel7

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) May 22, 2023

“It means an awful lot to get an England vest,” she told AW.  “You’re running with some incredible athletes in Loughborough. It’s exciting and my first mentality is to go out there and enjoy it.

“Being totally honest, I never thought it would go that well. I was running with incredible athletes who had already had really fast times. I wanted to just perform to my best in the race and I think I’ve got that grittiness to always try and win. So I managed to pull it off!”

Axford isn’t a complete stranger to running. She finished 68th at the 2013 English Schools Cross County Championships and also competed in the 1500m at an East Anglian meeting during her teenage years.

However, in the last few months, she has made the kind of waves that start to get people excited about what is possible further down the line.

It’s only May but she has run the third fastest 3000m and sixth quickest 5000m of any female athlete in the UK so far this year.

Kate Axford wins in Loughborough (James Rhodes)

Axford isn’t getting too far ahead of herself though and wants to enjoy every second while she can. She’s grateful for the opportunity but is also eager to grasp it with both hands.

“It’s [running] honestly surreal and I’m just loving it,” Axford said. “I’d love to be able to go as far as my body, talent and training can take me. I’m basically not just going too crazy too early and making sure I manage my load so I don’t get injured.

“I think a lot of it [mindset] is the same [between hockey and athletics], especially when you’re in that element of competition. It’s about not leaving anything out on the hockey pitch or the track and that’s a mentality that I have.”

Axford is not short of support. Hollie Webb, who is Great Britain’s hockey captain and scored the winning penalty to win Olympic gold back in 2016, sent a message on Instagram stating “smashing it!” after her 3000m triumph.

A myriad of Axford’s former British hockey team-mates have also recognised her running achievements.

Elite women’s race winner

Kate Axford of @BelgraveHarrier wins the 2023 Comeback 5000m in Battersea

She clocks 15:49.79 pic.twitter.com/Gep3jZgg9t

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) April 28, 2023

“I think everyone around me is quite happy that they’ve seen me enjoying a different sport and pushing my boundaries,” she added. “That includes everyone I’ve played hockey with and all the coaches I had. They’re so supportive with the decision I made and willing me on.

“I had a dream of going to the Paris Olympics as part of the hockey team and even though I’m a different sport it’s still the ultimate dream.”

The big test for Axford will be when she faces athletes who have represented Great Britain at global championships, at the UKA Championships (July 8-9). Perform well in Manchester against the best of what the UK has to offer and suddenly the temperature will rise.

Axford is still unsure what discipline she will do but it is likely to be somewhere from the 1500m to the 5000m.

There is a huge sense of the unknown but that may well be Axford’s biggest strength.

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World 2019 heptathlon champion and British record-holder eager to impress at the legendary combined events meet

Katarina Johnson-Thompson is in confident mood ahead of her first heptathlon this season as she takes on some of the best in the world at Hypo-Meeting Götzis (May 27-28).

The world 2019 heptathlon champion and British record-holder warmed up for her trip to Austria in style after winning both the 100m hurdles and being part of the successful England 4x400m team at the Loughborough International on Sunday (May 21).

The 30-year-old clocked 13.73 (-1.0) in the 100m hurdles, threw a best of 13.13m in the shot put and rounded the day off by helping the English quartet to relay victory in 3:37.03.

“It was really cool to do a mixture of events,” Johnson-Thompson told AW. “I did the hurdles, which I really just like to get out the way before I do a heptathlon. The shot put was probably one of the most consistent series [of throws] I’ve done in my life and I’m really pleased with it.

“The 4x400m leg is probably the first and last time I’ll do a relay I think! It was stressful competing for England and I normally don’t like working in a team just in case I let them down. But it worked out well.

“That’s probably the first and last time I’ll do a [4x400m] relay I think!” @JohnsonThompson on representing @EnglandAthletic at the Loughborough Invitational

She prepared for @meeting_goetzis with the 100m hurdles, shot put and the 4x400m relay

@TimAdams76 pic.twitter.com/aj1j19iN5j

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) May 22, 2023

“I’ve done a few relays in France before when I took it a bit easy but this one was a bit more high pressured. It’s great practice anyway for the 800m.”

Johnson-Thompson flies out to Götzis on Thursday (May 26) and is no stranger to the event, having won it in 2014 and 2019, the latter occurring just five months before she claimed a maiden world heptathlon title.

However, last year she scored the lowest score of her career at the event and Johnson-Thompson knows better than anyone else about the pressure that the multi-events mecca brings.

“It feels like a world championships,” she said. “There’s always been exciting energy at the event and people are always optimistic in Götzis.

“It can break your heart but it can also make your dreams come true.”

To be fully prepared for the outdoor season and in a bid to reclaim her world heptathlon title, Johnson-Thompson skipped the indoor season and instead focused on her training camps in Turkey and South Africa.

KJT at Loughborough International (James Rhodes)

Now coached by Aston Moore, Johnson-Thompson has found an extra spring in her step and last August she became a double Commonwealth heptathlon champion, her first major accolade in four years.

The next step is to raise that level again against the world’s best but Johnson-Thompson will likely not face Nafi Thiam until the World Championships in Budapest, with the double Olympic and world heptathlon champion missing Götzis.

“It was really good as I didn’t have an indoor season and it’s been really useful having that training, just to break it up and get some sunshine,” Johnson-Thompson added. “Ultimately, you’ll never know what you’ll do until you go out there and get to the start line. I’ve had great preparation and everything has gone well so far.

“Thiam is one of the greatest athletes of any generation. It was so good to see her break the world pentathlon record at the European Indoor Championships in Istanbul. Everyone is raising the game and hopefully I can join them too.”

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European Indoor 3000m champion on Night of the 10,000m PBs and smashing her own glass ceiling

Amy-Eloise Markovc goes into this year’s Night of the 10,000m PBs off the back of a 2022 which saw the On athlete claim personal bests outdoors in the 3000m, 5000m, 10,000m, 5km and half marathon.

The 27-year-old athlete, however, agonisingly missed out on claiming a first major outdoor track medal at both the Commonwealth Games and European Championships.

Markovc finished fourth in Birmingham, fifth in Munich and was also 12th in her 5000m heat at the World Championships in Oregon.

She claimed a first British 5000m title but the aim for 2023 is to focus on the competition in front of her on a global scale and not just look at times.

At Highgate this weekend (May 20), Markovc will put that to the test as she opens up her outdoor season at Night of the 10,000m PBs, an event she first did last year and finished only behind fellow Brit Jess Warner-Judd.

Markovc’s time of 31:25.57 she set at Parliament Hill remains her PB and placed her 10th on the UK all-time list in the process.

In what doubles up as a qualifier for the World Championships, Markovc will hope to nail the standard of 31:10.00 and be one of the top two Brits to automatically qualify for Budapest.

Amy-Eloise Markovc poised to strike (Mark Shearman)

What’s the best bit about Night of the 10,000m PBs?

The event just makes athletics and running more engaging. It’s different. People who are really into running will love watching high calibre athletes run 5km or 10km races but for some who are on the fence or it’s their first event, it makes it really interesting as there’s always something going on.

For the athletes it’s great as everything feels a bit more intimate than being in a stadium. It’s such a cool meet as there are people of all levels competing and the races get faster and faster throughout the night.

READ MORE: Night of the 10,000m PBs preview

I ran Highgate last year and I wasn’t 100% so I always wanted to go back and give it a good run. I feel like I can run a really good 10,000m and I wanted to do it regardless of being 70% or 90% because it’s such a good event but it’s always nice going into it feeling like you’re in contention.

I hadn’t run a 10,000m before 2020. I’ve never been in an environment where so many people are excited about running a 10,000m. It’s really palatable to everyone watching and it means that so many British athletes can feed off the energy you got from the festival vibes to run a quick time.

How has the start of 2023 been?

I was struggling with a few health issues earlier on in the year including a couple of illnesses and a torn disc.

That took a while to sort out and fitness came back way faster than expected. Training has been ticking over really nicely and I feel in a great shape to race. Sometimes it can be easy to focus on times too much, especially when qualifying standards are on the line, and it’s more about competing. I feel like I could get a pretty substantial 10,000m personal best and I’m excited to give myself that opportunity for success.

The past few months has been a bit like a yo-yo as my body adjusted post-injury. The focus is on enjoying what I am doing and I feel fulfilled and love what I do every day. I felt like I was running out of time so it was just about focusing on the day-to-day.

3 DAYS TO GO

See where the hard work happens with British Olympic @on_running athlete Amy Eloise-Markovc as we join her for a speed session at the High-Performance Centre in Loughborough alongside coach Rob Denmark to prepare for @NightOf10kPBs pic.twitter.com/2Vw8FhOui0

— The Big Run (@TheBigRunPod) May 17, 2023

What about last season with so many personal bests?

I actually came off last season feeling that I’d under-performed. I felt like we got my peak wrong and I peaked way too early in the season so by the major championships I couldn’t tap into that goodness I had earlier in the year. I obviously made a lot of progress with personal bests but I’m now using last year as experience for this season.

I don’t just want to make championships anymore. I want to perform well and compete against the best of the best. I know my ceiling is so much higher.

How have On helped you as an athlete?

On has been huge in facilitating all the changes I’ve made in the past year. Due to being with them I’ve gone back to the UK and choosing a different coach and set-up. As a brand they’re so engaging regarding athlete feedback and incorporating what we say into products because they’re innovating so quickly.

It’s been amazing running for On. It’s been just under a year since I joined them last June and they’ve been so supportive. It means a lot to have a brand that backs you in this way.

Being with On has helped me move to a base in Loughborough. It’s good as I’m working with Rob Denmark who’s an amazing coach. I train with Melissa Courtney-Bryant and we have a really good dynamic in the group. We also work with athletes like Sam Harrison even though she is coached by Vince Wilson. We are competitors but we collaborate and genuinely want each other to do well.

Jess Warner-Judd leads Amy-Eloise Markovc (Mark Shearman)

What do you make of the strength of British female distance running now?

When you see other athletes doing well it’s inspiring and it pushes you on. When Sam [Harrison] ran that quickly [2:25:59] at the London Marathon that’s only going to help me when we do the longer sessions. The same goes for when Melissa runs a fast 3000m. Times are getting so quick so fast and it’s cool to be a part of.

I think my ceiling is perhaps a lot higher than what someone would think based on my current performances but when you see these athletes achieving these things, it makes you believe it even more.

The focus this year won’t be on time and it will be putting myself in a position to compete at the highest level when it matters the most. The times will hopefully come with that. Having said that, I’d love to PB in events from the 1500m up to the half marathon as the season unfolds. The focus will be on the 5000m and I have a lot of unfinished the business in the event but I also feel there’s opportunity in the 10,000m.

Could you even do a marathon in the future?

I will definitely do a marathon at some point. It’s a bit of a rite to passage as a runner and the distance does intrigue me. I’ve only ever done one half marathon and I feel like I need to do a few more of those first! I just love testing myself and I’m curious to see what I could do.

Women's 1500m victory goes to Ethiopia's Dawit Seyaum in 4:04.35 ahead of PBs from Ireland's Sarah Healy (4:06.94) and Australia's Linden Hall (4:07.36). There's also a PB of 4:08.68 for Britain's Amy Eloise Markovc #WorldIndoorTour Getty Images for British Athletics pic.twitter.com/YJF6BZeUWB

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) February 19, 2022

What about reflection and your journey in athletics so far?

I think sometimes achieving your ambitions in this sport can take longer than you think. I had a few years where I wasn’t really competing at all and I think I really struggled from about 18-21. I think that slowed down my progression as I felt I was starting to scratch and I lost that ambition when I was younger of wanting to become an Olympic athlete. That was the ambition.

On one hand I’ve stayed in the sport a lot longer than I thought I would but on the other hand I couldn’t imagine life without it. It’s been a long journey with a lot of up and downs and I’ll keep doing it for as long as I can.

Budapest 23 and Paris 24 are the two major goals over the next two years. I’m trying to put myself in a position to make those teams and then be in contention at them. As long as I walk off the track knowing I’ve done everything I could’ve done when analysing the context of the race and I’m proud of that, then that’s success for me. I hope that means being around the medals but I want to represent may country proudly.

For fast times, festival vibes and free entry for spectators, see On Track Nights.

» Find out more about Night of 10,000m PBs here

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European Indoor 3000m bronze medallist on how the event at Parliament Hill inspires athletes

Verity Ockenden is back in Highgate this weekend (May 20) for her fourth appearance on the track at Night of the 10,000m PBs.

The 31-year-old On athlete is part of a stacked women’s elite field in the championship race which kicks off at 8.40pm.

Just a few of her fellow Brits in that race include recent Olympic marathon qualifier Sam Harrison, reigning Night of the 10,000m PBs champion Jess Warner-Judd and fellow On team-mate Amy-Eloise Markovc.

For Ockenden, who is 16th on the UK all-time 10,000m list with a PB of 31:43.70, it’s a meet that runs close to the heart and one she has raced in on three previous occasions.

Her best time at Highgate came two years ago when she finished 11th and clocked 32:43.47, which was the best mark of her career over the distance at that point.

She also placed 16th and 11th in 2017 and last year respectively.

Ockenden opens up her season at Parliament Hill after recovering from an injury she picked up towards the end of last year.

AW caught up with European Indoor 3000m bronze medallist ahead of this year’s edition of Night of the 10,000m PBs.

Verity Ockenden and Carmela Cardama Báez (James Rhodes)

What do you expect from yourself at Night of the 10,000m PBs?

For me it’s a massive unknown and that’s what I’m really excited about. I feel like things are going really well in training even after being injured in December. I don’t really know how it’s going to go as I’ve got a new coaching set-up to last year and that was different to the year before that.

It’s been about 18 months since being out in Italy now and I feel like I’ve finally settled in and I didn’t expect to get married to my best friend! He’s now coaching me with the help of his best friend. That definitely wasn’t the plan but it’s working.

Last year was definitely a bit rocky for me and I really want to go back to the form that I was in when I headed into the Tokyo Olympics. I think a lot of the changes I made moving to Italy, it took a long time to have the desired effect. Now I feel that’s really helpful.

How’s the mental challenge of overcoming injuries?

I think with injuries one of the worst things that can happen is when they get into a cycle. For example, last year I had to recover from a tibial edema and then I had an Achilles problem, before getting a hamstring issue in the autumn.

They are probably all connected in a sense as you’re overcompensating where you’re working on something and then neglecting something else. Until you really get it together with a strong foundation things will keep getting harder. You’ve just got to remember it happens to everybody. You might not see it on social media and it’s just about focusing on what you can do.

I never used to cross-train and it’s the thing I only used to do when I was injured. Not to say I’ll do it at the drop of the hat but on some days I will swap out my run for a cross-training session.

Everything you need to know about the Night of the 10,000m PBs on Saturday.@NightOf10kPBs previewhttps://t.co/UPn9FeO0Xr

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) May 17, 2023

What’s it like to race Night of the 10,000m PBs? 

I’ve done this race since 2017 and pretty much every year I’ve been there either racing or spectating. Just to have it on the calendar is such a treat. That’s not just the party atmosphere but this is where you can go and perform well, without a question. Everything is set-up so well. The fields are going to be deep. There’s also Wavelight technology on hand.

The noise and the heat gets to you. It doesn’t matter what the weather is. When you run past those flames you feel the heat and it’s unbelievable. Have I ever experienced another race like it? Probably not. I’ve never run the London Marathon but it took me back to my memory of watching Paula Radcliffe’s British marathon record [2:15:25 in 2003] on TV.

My core memory of that is not even just Paula’s performance but the colour, noise and the hype. That’s what sticks with people when you’re an eight-year-old kid and it stays with you for life.

What’s the best thing about Night of the 10,000m PBs?

It brings the colour and character of the individual athlete to life. I think a lot of events are trying to follow the trend that Night of the 10,000m PBs has set. I saw they’ve had fashion walk-ins at some of the meets in the US and it was just really interesting. I’m not even into fashion that much but it really drew me in.

I think it’s important to nurture that individual identity outside of just being an athlete. Me being a writer and a poet helps a lot with that. I don’t want to just limit myself to just running and if that doesn’t go well there’s nothing else to me. It’s about getting those emotions out about how it’s going on track.

Night of the 10,000m PBs (Getty)

A lot of the things that I write I try to expand on the best bits of running that I’m experiencing. I think it helps the sport grow. I don’t know how much people are into poetry and it’s quite niche but I read a tweet from Michael Johnson saying he thinks it’s up to athletes to lift the sport up by showing what we can do.

How has On helped you as an athlete?

Well firstly, Chris Thompson has been a little bit of a mentor for me since I joined On. That’s probably one of the best things about On because you get that family atmosphere. The shoe technology is amazing and I genuinely believe they have the best products out there.

Even if I wasn’t with them I’d choose to join the brand and gives you a lot of confidence going out on the track because you get to work with the performance team and get a lot of feedback. I’ve only started using carbon shoes in training this month and I’m still waiting to see how that works for me.

I’m interested to see how I can recover quicker and get more high quality stuff in without as much wear and tear on the body. I’m quite old school and it took me a while to even race in carbon shoes.

"The thing with Highgate [Night of the 10,000m PBs], it gets you to your very core and the reason for that is because people are screaming right next to you."@Thommo10k on what it's like to race at @NightOf10kPBs and why the event is so special

@TimAdams76 pic.twitter.com/6YH3KIuGZ5

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) May 17, 2023

It’s probably hard to pin down an exact phrase “Thommo” has said because he says a lot! I think that’s what I really appreciate about him because he’s always been on the end of the phone. He spent an hour with me once trying to figure out what happened with my Achilles and you get reassurance and belief from that.

That’s the great thing about On because they’ve got him on as an elite athlete but someone who will be advising athletes even when he retires.

Do you reflect a lot and what are your goals for 2023 and beyond?

It’s funny looking back at my first races at a club at school. I was good and won the county championships but then I’d come 100th at the national level. I don’t think anyone from my club [Swansea Harriers] thought I’d be doing this now so I’d like to keep the perspective in that sense. I just want to compete at my best for as long as I can.

I really want to go to the Paris 2024 Olympics. It’ll be hard but I will give that my shot.

READ MORE: Night of the 10,000m PBs preview

I try not to think about it [the strength in depth of British distance running] too much. There are so many good women now and you never know where the challenge will come from. There are so many athletes who have such good range and they could do any event. I just have to focus on myself and getting a PB and back to where I was.

I believe I can run in the 14:40s over 5000m and it’s just a matter of when. The 5000m is definitely my favourite event. I’m setting myself for a tough opener in Highgate and go straight in at a 10,000m but that will set me up well for the rest of the season. Then we’ll focus on the speed and I’m also going to do Paris and Vienna at On Track Nights as well.

For fast times, festival vibes and free entry for spectators, see On Track Nights.

» Find out more about Night of 10,000m PBs here

» Subscribe to AW magazine here

The post Verity Ockenden Q&A on Night of the 10,000m PBs appeared first on AW.

British 1500m runner looks back on her finest moment when she won silver behind Jenny Simpson at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu

I went to the European Indoor Championships that spring and under-performed so I over-trained because I was so upset about how badly I’d done. I picked up quite a big Achilles injury and missed the first five or six weeks of the outdoor season. 

I had five weeks totally off, from the end of April and all of May, which is quite significant for chasing qualification times. It was quite hairy but I very much felt that, if I could get to a race, then I should make the most out of it. That was quite refreshing as I’d struggled with nerves an awful lot up until that point in my career.

The week before the British Championships, I was trying to just run the qualification time, and I ended up running what is still my personal best, knocking three seconds off my fastest time. It was a shock – going from “am I even going to make a championships?” to being ranked pretty highly.

I’d finally made a senior team the year before at the Commonwealth Games and Europeans and I loved it so I really wanted to get back. I wanted to prove that I could do it for more than one year. There was just that desperation. 

I was trying to make up for a disappointing indoor season as well and I felt like all the odds were against me, so it was quite motivating. But I hadn’t ever thought I could get a medal. We had Lisa Dobriskey on the team who’d got a medal in Berlin two years before. I thought if I could get on the team, I stood a decent chance of making the final but just making the team was my main focus.

Daegu was super-hot and humid and I always preferred a more complicated competition environment. Whether it was time difference or climate, that gave me more to focus on and then I wouldn’t get nervous to start competing. 

I’d worked really hard with a sports psychologist in 2011, so I had my race plan and it was very much about trying to execute that. I was at that stage of my career where I’d probably beaten everybody at the Diamond Leagues. It felt familiar. I hadn’t won that many races but, on any given day, I knew all those people were beatable in the first round and the second round. I knew I could do enough to progress but I very much saw it as one race at a time. 

I was always much better in a sit-and-kick race. I won my heat but almost by accident. I was just trying to finish as high as possible but I put my foot down with 100m to go and just ran away from everybody. I thought: “That was way easier than your first round at the world champs should be”. But it was a slower race – it played to my strengths – and that set the tone. I took so much confidence from winning the heat. 

Lisa went out. She was really struggling with injury. She tried to front run the next heat to make it faster but still didn’t get through. That was hard to watch. You don’t want to take confidence from doing better than someone else but I suddenly realised I had achieved something that was not a given. For a team-mate to not achieve it made me realise how special it was. 

In the semi-final, I ran really badly and went really wide. I wasted so much energy. I bumped into Usain Bolt in the lift afterwards and he told me my run had been awful. I only qualified as a fastest loser and didn’t quite execute my race plan.

But, going into the final, I didn’t feel any pressure. There were so many women in that race who thought they could win. I went in relaxed.

In 2011, nobody broke four minutes. Every race on the circuit had been very physical, so I was on high alert for it. There was a big move from Spain’s Natalia Rodríguez and you could see the domino effect. Everyone was panicking and moving. Hellen Obiri and Morgan Uceny fell in front of me and that was stressful. I could see it happening. 

Morgan is actually a very good friend. I was thinking: “No, not Morgan”. I kicked Hellen’s arm and thought: “Blimey, that was close. I’ve done really well here to not fall over.” I didn’t see it as an opportunity, with two fast people gone, but it reshaped the race. 

With 200m to go. I was thinking “I’ve had a good run”. All I’d wanted was to give a good representation of myself and I’d done that. “I’m seventh, I’ve done okay”. I was just totally relaxed.

Hannah England (Mark Shearman)

Finishing the last 100m strongly was something I always practised in training. Coming into the home straight, we were still a group of seven and, apart from Jenny Simpson, you could see everyone was thinking: “medal!” Jenny was thinking: “I’m going to win this thing.” I was just thinking: “I’ll sprint as hard as I can and see what happens.”

Everybody else seemed to tense up. It’s not the most efficient way to sprint – when you let that emotion take over with that bit of desperation. I just went on to autopilot and that was incredibly useful for me. If I’d thought: “I’m going to get a medal or I could win this”, I wouldn’t have stayed as relaxed and it wouldn’t have worked.

About 30m out, I was going through the technical cues I’d worked on. It felt like something I’d done 1000 times on the track with my training partners and then, suddenly, I thought: “Where’s everyone else gone? Why is no one else sprinting?” Everyone else had melted away. I could see Jenny ahead of me but everyone else was gone. 

From that point to the finish, it was probably less than a second. There’s a picture of Jenny and me coming across the line and you’ve never seen two people look so shocked. We didn’t really have time to celebrate or get a punch-in-the-air moment. It happened very fast. 

» This feature first appeared in the April issue of AW, which you can read here

The post Hannah England: my greatest race appeared first on AW.

It’s an event of just 40 runners which takes place in Tennessee woodland and was inspired by a prison break, so why has the Barkley Marathons captured so much attention? Adrian Stott reports

In the world of ultra running, the Barkley Marathons in Tennessee has developed an almost cult-like mystique. First officially run in 1986, the profile of the event, which takes place in Frozen Head State Park and was inspired by a prison break, grows every year – yet the size of the field hasn’t.

The 2023 staging took place last month and sparked intense chatter throughout the global running community – quite a trick for a challenge which features only 40 runners starting in a small car park in the woods.

To complete the challenge, competitors must cover five loops of a gruelling course which has a total elevation gain of 60,000 feet and event creator Gary “Lazarus Lake” Cantrell claims is around 20 miles – though many believe it be closer to 26. 

On top of that, during each loop – run in alternating directions – the participants visit checkpoints where there is a hidden book from which they must tear out numbered pages and return them to Cantrell. Only 17 people have managed to complete the task in the history of the event. 

Among those taking on the Barkleys this year were British ultra athletes Damian Hall and Jasmin Paris. Hall, an ambassador for inov-8, completed four laps while Paris made it through three. 

It is an intense experience unlike any other and seems to generate as much interest as the larger corporate events like the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB), which features nearly 10,000 entrants in a week-long festival of eight races.

Hall and Paris have run both events so AW caught up with them to get their thoughts on how these tests of endurance compare.

Can you describe the start of the Barkleys compared with UTMB?

Damian Hall: The Barkleys is an almost intimate feeling. It just feels like a few friends have gathered together at a car park in the woods to go for a run. UTMB is so different, with thousands of runners and supporters lining the streets, all the commercial infrastructure of an urban location and music blaring out getting everyone too excited. I like the buzz at UTMB but it’s so different.

Jasmin Paris: I think the same kind of feeling. I prefer the more intimate feeling at the Barkleys versus the UTMB. UTMB is exciting, but the Barkleys is just a different challenge.

Jasmin Paris

What sort of feeling do you get when you’re out on the course at either event? 

JP: At UTMB, you’re rarely alone, which is odd for a race of that length. There is usually someone in front or coming up behind you, or there are spectators around. Even in the middle of the night there can be people with cowbells and an accordion on the top of a mountain. You don’t have much time to get lost in the loneliness, whereas the Barkleys is different. In the first loop, you might be around people but the chance of being with people is slim. At the Barkleys, it’s really quiet and still, there’s lots of time for you to think your thoughts as you’re racing on your own.

DH: The Barkleys is a much quieter, lonely experience. At UTMB, I’ve loved the crowd stuff and they have been motivating to me at times. The Barkleys is harder in that respect because there’s almost no-one there to cheer you. It’s quite a pure experience. 

Compare finishing the UTMB and the Barkleys finish camp.

DH: The bit that stays with me is finishing the fourth loop at the Barkleys, knowing I would have time to start on a fifth. I just felt supported by people like Jared Campbell, the three-time finisher who was there waiting to fist-bump me. Honestly, it was like a dream. There were maybe 20 people at the absolute most. Very intimate. UTMB, with all the razz and music and people lining the streets, is so different and I like it in a different way.

JP: When I finished the UTMB, I was on that last summit and there was a massive storm and everybody disappeared. So there weren’t very many people there at all. I didn’t get that whole “running in through crowds of people” experience. I preferred the Barkleys finish. That race tests you in so many different ways. UTMB is a test of your running and racing ability. The Barkleys is testing you on lots of levels, especially the ability to push through when it gets really hard on your own.

As Damian said, there won’t be that many people there but they’re connected to you in some way and understand what you have been through. You have this affinity or shared experience that brings you close to people. I feel like, at the Barkleys, almost everybody that’s there waiting at the finish line has been through what you went through in some way. It’s so unique and different, it gives you this common ground that’s difficult to find in life elsewhere.

I think when people run the UTMB they do feel something of that when they finish. A common feeling of finishing a big effort. At the Barkleys, that’s magnified simply because the outside world doesn’t understand what it is to run that race.

Which is the more challenging, UTMB or the Barkleys? 

DH: Oh, it’s got to be the Barkleys. It was the mental focus you need. At UTMB you can largely switch off and you don’t have to do too much thinking. At the Barkleys, you have to be mentally alert all the time. The mental part is so hard, which is probably where I failed. Sixty hours of concentrating is huge. The terrain, too, as it’s slow which makes it tough. 

JP: I agree it has to be the Barkleys. You only have to make a small mistake and the consequences are pretty huge. On my last loop, I made a small error at the start of my descent that meant that I ended up in a completely different line and I wasted a lot of time, then I hit the stream and I didn’t know which way to go.

You’re both involved with the Green Runners and looking at ways runners can reduce their carbon footprint. When you look at the Barkleys and then the UTMB, do you feel organisers care about sustainability? Or is the Barkleys like a local fell race where you turn up in a car park and you just put £2 in a Tupperware box?

JP: That’s exactly what the Barkleys feels like and it makes the race’s carbon footprint very low.

DH: With the caveat that I have just flown my first flight in four years, I think a lot of races, whether it’s deliberate or not, don’t seem to understand that the biggest element of their carbon footprint, sometimes 80 or 90 per cent, is the participant travel.

While getting rid of plastic bottles is good – and UTMB were one of the first major events to start encouraging bringing your cup or bottle and looking after the trails and the ecology – they’re not nearly as worthwhile as trying to lessen emissions from travel, especially if flights are involved.

If races could incentivise travel by giving a discount entry for train or car travel that would be nice. Runners can also assess if there is an alternative to flying to an event.

JP: Another point I’d raise is that I understand that the UTMB system for getting an entry is that you have an increased chance of getting in the lottery if you’ve collected running stones. These are acquired by running other UTMB series races all across the world. That’s one of the reasons I don’t want to run the UTMB again, at least not until that changes.

I don’t want to support a system where they’re incentivising people to travel the world for multiple races. They might be exciting races, but I think we should be trying to focus on being more selective and travelling less. The Barkleys isn’t asking you to fly around the world to do different races to get in as part of their race series. 

» This feature first appeared in the April issue of AW, which you can read here

The post Battling the Barkleys appeared first on AW.

The 42-year-old on how shoe technology has allowed him to try and break barriers for older athletes

Chris Thompson may be in the twilight years of his career but is not planning to stop anytime soon, ahead of his fifth London Marathon on Sunday (April 23).

The recently turned 42-year-old first raced at the London Marathon in 2014 when he clocked 2:11:19, yet his personal best over 26.2 miles was set in 2021 when “Thommo”, at the fledgling age of 39, ran 2:10:52 at Kew Gardens. That time was an M35 British record and saw him qualify for his second Olympics after representing Britain over 10,000m at London 2012.

With athletics having evolved hugely in the last decade, from greater understanding around recovery to the introduction of carbon plated shoes, athletes can now push the boundaries much more at an older age.

Thompson, a European 10,000m silver medallist from 2010, believes that he can be a trailblazer for athletes who are in their early 40s, proving that what wasn’t possible when he started out in the sport is now largely because of the shoe technology.

Chris Thompson at Kew Gardens (Mark Shearman)

“I think the marathon now is a completely different event,” he says. “When I ran in 2014 and clocked 2:11, I brought the 5km/10km intensity into marathon training, which was tough because the shoe technology then didn’t give you as much time to recover then as it does now.

“I was feeling a lot in sessions and back then you had to put that down to how adaptive you were in training. You were never running your fastest time on the first marathon and you needed at least two or three races behind you before your body let you go in a way.

“Now you’re getting much closer to race speeds within a session and can get personal bests in sessions – even at my age. For me, I’ve got to be careful how I deal with that to get the best out of myself out on race day.”

Thompson is coached by Alan Storey, who has also trained both Sir Mo Farah and Emile Cairess. The trio were together at the press conference ahead of this year’s London Marathon.

Like Thompson, Farah is also in his 40s and the pair will be going after Andy Davies’ British M40 marathon record of 2:14:20, which was set in Seville in December.

Chris Thompson, Mo Farah and Emile Cairess (London Marathon Events)

This will be the third marathon that Thompson has raced in super shoes and he will be wearing On’s Cloudboom Echo.

“Adjusting to that [how quickly you can recover between training sessions now] is a shock to the system and it’s really confused me,” he adds. “To put it into context, you can feel when you’re hitting a red line in training. So when me and Alan [Storey] talk after a session, we don’t talk about the actual session as much compared to figuring out how much recovery you’ll need.

“Is that one, two, three or four days? I’m finishing sessions and I can’t read that and I’m coming back after two days and doing stuff that I think shouldn’t be possible.

“But that doesn’t necessarily mean that adds up to a great race. You have to do more in training and it has to be at a much higher intensity. It’s about finding that balance and I didn’t know for example, until I got three or four miles into a session on one particular day, that I bonked. I didn’t see it coming because I didn’t understand the feedback.

“How can I approach this year’s London Marathon? I’m having to be open minded because I don’t quite know how to ‘massage’ the race. In some ways it’s been great as I feel a bit reborn as I’m discovering new things and it’s exciting.”

Chris Thompson in 2018 (Great South Run)

Sports stars breaking the boundaries of what’s possible in your twilight years has occurred in a number of sports over the past few years, including Tom Brady (45), Roger Federer (41) and Serena Williams (41).

Thompson wants to see how long he can stay at the top level and provide both data for On Running and inspire the younger generation, in an age where athletes will train and run in super shoes.

“For me to learn [how to push the boundaries] is to actually race,” he explains. “It’s almost like an experiment to see what I can discover and then I want to use that to help teach others. Last year was frustrating but I hope this year can be a springboard.

“In my mind I’m trying to create a bit of a mindset that athletes in their 40s can do things in the sport. There have been examples but the shoes now have helped keep athletes at that age in the game. Off the back of what I’ve discovered with On is trying to help our athletes with the shoe tech and how can we push the limits of what’s possible?

Chris Thompson in 2015 (Mark Shearman)

“He’s not quite the level of athlete that I am [Tom Brady at 45]! That’s [American Football] an impact sport and it’s pretty brutal on the body. It’s hard to compare sports but On have given me the opportunity to see how far I can go with this and I’m not here as an old athlete making up the numbers, I’m here to compete.

“I think I can genuinely run well [at the London Marathon] and I want to use this as a way for the next generation to see what they’ll go through and what to expect.”

Inspiration will not come from afar. Thompson’s enthusiasm for the sport is unwavering and the fact that his mum is doing the London Marathon for the first time this year will provide extra motivation.

READ MORE: TCS London Marathon preview

Capturing memories is as important for him as performing to the best of his ability.

“It’s one of the biggest road races in the world and the badge of honour to run London is amazing,” Thompson adds. “In my first race back in 2014 I was really emotional because I had just completed the course. It knocks you in a way you don’t quite realise.

“I want to stay in the sport and stay relevant. I’ve dipped my toe in coaching and there will always be an affinity to keep that side of my brain operational. I don’t think I’ll ever be a full-time professional coach but I just want to continue to keep my mind sharp and relevant long into the future.”

» Download our April “marathon special” issue  here

» Subscribe to AW magazine here

The post Chris Thompson: “I want to push the boundaries of what’s possible” appeared first on AW.

As one high-profile Brit approaches his final race over 26.2 miles and another prepares for her first, former world record-holder Paula Radcliffe urges both to make time to enjoy this year’s London experience

One athlete saying farewell to the marathon, another taking on the distance for the very first time. One athlete approaching the final strides of their career, another at the peak of their powers. Mo Farah and Eilish McColgan are coming at this weekend’s TCS London Marathon from very different angles.

Paula Radcliffe knows how both will be feeling. The former world record-holder, who recently celebrated the 20^th anniversary of that landmark run of 2:15:25, is very much aware of what it’s like not only to be the centre of attention for the vast crowds who line the streets of the city, but also to be standing on the start line of a debut marathon with questions to be answered.

Having won London in 2002, 2003 and 2005, she has also experienced the joy of being able to say goodbye to the British public along the world famous route, having bowed out from competitive racing at the event eight years ago.

Farah, while still aiming to be a competitive presence, has admitted this will be his last foray into running 26.2 miles, having run five marathons – a win in Chicago and third place in London (both in 2018) being his best results.

Retirement is looming for the highly decorated track athlete who has four Olympic titles to his name and a 10km tune-up in Gabon which saw him finish seventh did not suggest a renaissance is in the air. That performance comes on top of the now 40-year-old having to make a late withdrawal from last October’s London Marathon through injury, a surprise defeat to Ellis Cross in last year’s Vitality 10,000 and a failure to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Radcliffe expects the six-time world champion, who is coached by her husband Gary Lough, to still be giving his all but is also hoping he allows himself to simply enjoy the occasion.

“Having to train hard and put a lot into racing – that’s never a sacrifice. The hard thing is doing the hours of physio and getting over the disappointment when you can’t do a race because your body wasn’t able to do it”

“What makes him so great is that attitude of ‘I always think I can do it’ so when your body starts to tell you ‘no mate, you can’t’, and you keep getting injured, that’s when suddenly you have to think ‘okay’,” says the 2005 world champion.

“Having to train hard and put a lot into racing – that’s never a sacrifice. The hard thing is doing the hours of physio and getting over the disappointment when you can’t do a race because your body wasn’t able to do it.

“Or [there’s also] when you feel like you’re in shape but your body just doesn’t click and it just doesn’t go right on the day. Those days, as you get older, become a bit more frequent.

“I think the most important thing is hopefully that he’s able to enjoy it and he’s able to make a few more of those London memories and savour them. I’m eternally grateful that I got the chance to do that in 2015. It was the slowest time I ever ran, so it wasn’t for speed. It was just the chance to be able to get out there and be a part of it.

“[For Mo] to be able to go out and to be semi competitive, but to get around and just appreciate the crowd, appreciate the race that it is and appreciate London, I think it will be really, really special. It makes me emotional thinking about it.”

The struggles of athletes who have been at the very top but are then forced to come to terms with no longer being able to produce superhuman feats are well known. Radcliffe admits that she no longer times of any of her runs as she simply doesn’t want to know how much slower she has become.

Farah is also reaching the point of having to contemplate life beyond being a professional athlete. For now, however, Radcliffe insists reaching the start line healthy is a small victory in itself and that we shouldn’t forget the vast back catalogue of big race experience he can lean on.

“I remember running with him in 2012 and saying ‘at the moment everything feels easy, just take the time to enjoy it, because it won’t be there forever and it’ll get harder’,” she continues.

“I don’t think he’s really thinking about what he’s going to do next. I think it’s just still one target at a time. I think he’s realistic and he doesn’t think he’s going to be up there trying to win this race but, at the same time, he still wants to run as well as he is capable of doing at this stage.”

Eilish McColgan (SCC Events)

“I would think she’s probably bursting with excitement and anticipation to get out there. With this being her first one, she’s learning so she can play about with it a little bit and have fun”

What McColgan might be capable of on her marathon debut is a question on many observer’s lips. She is an athlete who has taken great strides forward thanks to the year of her life in 2022 which featured a series of record-breaking performances, European medals and that unforgettable Commonwealth 10,000m victory in Birmingham.

The 32-year-old has carried the momentum on. Her London build-up has featured a run of 30:00:86 over the 25-lap distance which took down Radcliffe’s long-standing British record, while a knee issue was subsequently overcome as McColgan broke her own national mark by 43 seconds with a time of 65:43 at the Berlin half marathon.

Those times have done little to dampen expectations around what might be possible for her over the marathon distance, plus there’s the added dimension of her mother and coach Liz being a former London winner. However, as Radcliffe explains, only once the notoriously difficult distance has been covered will the picture become clearer.

READ MORE: 2023 TCS London Marathon preview

“Until someone runs one [a marathon], you really don’t know – and that’s absolutely not trying to take anything away from Eilish,” says the 49-year-old. “She’s shown how good she is, she’s shown how strong she is and she’s shown she’s in great shape by running 30 minutes for 10,000m in the middle of a marathon build-up.

“She’s in that really exciting position now of knowing she’s in shape coming into the biggest race that a British athlete can do, plus her mum’s been there and won it before so there’s a whole family history to it, as well. I would think she’s probably bursting with excitement and anticipation to get out there. With this being her first one, she’s learning so she can play about with it a little bit and have fun.”

McColgan will line up as part of an impressive elite women’s field which also features the likes of world record-holder Brigid Kosgei, Olympic champion Peres Jepchirchir and defending London champion Yalemzerf Yehualaw. There is a temptation to try and estimate the Scot’s potential finishing time and Radcliffe does concede “everything points to a great a performance”.

However, she adds: “I’m not sure she wants to [put a time estimate on herself]. I think she just wants to go out for the first one and just race well. It’s a good field, but I don’t think it’s a field that she should be scared of.”

» 20 years on, Paula Radcliffe takes us behind the scenes of her marathon world record in the April issue of AW. Buy it here

» Read everything you need to know about the 2023 London Marathon in our in-depth preview guide

The post Mo Farah and Eilish McColgan on very different marathon missions appeared first on AW.

After storming to glory in 1993, little did the Basildon runner realise that it would signal the start of a 30-year drought of domestic male victories at the London Marathon

It is 30 years since Eamonn Martin charged to victory in the London Marathon. Making his debut at the distance, the then 34-year-old showed few signs of inexperience and always looked in control as he followed every move. In the closing stages only one rival remained – Isidro Rico of Mexico. But, racing under the shadow of Big Ben with 200m to go, the British 10,000m record-holder unleashed his trademark sprint finish to triumph emphatically in a time of 2:10:50.

It was a grey, windswept spring morning in the capital and the jubilant Martin was cheered home by huge crowds before being overwhelmed by interview requests in the subsequent days. In typical old-school fashion, six days later he put his Basildon AC singlet on again to race for his club at the national road relays and received a standing ovation from fellow athletes at Sutton Park.

Following the victories of Hugh Jones, Mike Gratton, Charlie Spedding, Steve Jones and Allister Hutton, Martin was the sixth British man to triumph in the race in the space of 12 years. What nobody could imagine at the time, though, is that no British male runner has been unable to win the race since.

“I get no pleasure out of the fact that no British man has won since me,” he says. “I don’t want to take that to my grave. I want the sport that I’m so heavily involved in to have progressed. If a Brit won in the next few years, I would be genuinely really pleased. The kudos of winning in 1993 has been great, but it’s done.”

Ironically, Martin was not massively favoured to win back then either. Some considered him too tall and heavy to be a good marathon runner. He was also in the twilight of his career, had never run a marathon and was minus a shoe sponsor at the time. After winning, though, he joked that he was “fastest fat old git on the day”.

Eamonn Martin battles with Isidro Rico (Mark Shearman)

At the pre-event press conference the British male contenders included Martin, Paul Evans, Paul Davies-Hale, Carl Thackery and Steve Brace. Martin was last to be brought on to the stage but whereas his fellow competitors talked about various injuries and problems they’d suffered, he simply smiled and said “everything went perfectly”.

His build-up had been injury and illness-free. After enjoying victory at the Hastings Half Marathon, he placed a solid 34th in the World Cross Country Championships in Spain three weeks before London. A 25-mile long run followed, as did a fast five-miler at the Southern Road Relays for his club.

“I was still the British record-holder for 10,000m and had a lot of speed. I had been running a lot of miles for a number of years so I went into it [London] with a view to winning,” he says. “I thought I might not have too many marathons as I was already 34 so I thought I’d go straight into a big one. The timing and locality in London was good. My aim was to run with the leaders and if things went wrong and I wasn’t good enough, then fair enough. I knew I was in great shape, though.”

Close to the race, Martin’s coach Mel Batty paid a visit to Ron Hill in Lancashire and explained his athlete’s training to the former European, Commonwealth and Boston marathon winner. “There are multiple ways to prepare,” recalls Martin, “but Ron told Mel that he felt we were doing everything right, which for me was a real stamp of approval.”

On the Thursday of race week, Martin’s wife gave birth to their third child, which meant he welcomed his new-born son into the world before travelling into London for the press conference and race. 

Martin had prepared painstakingly for the event and had practised taking energy drinks balanced on steeplechase barriers while doing track workouts. With a background of working as an engineer for Ford, he applied a methodical and scientific approach to his running. Yet despite this he chose not to wear socks nor a watch on race day.

“I hope it doesn’t come across as arrogant, but I could always see the lead vehicle!” he laughs. “Why did I want to have another gadget that would take my focus away from just running?”

As for going sock-less, he never wore socks in shorter races and had no problems with blisters or indeed chafing elsewhere on his body. For Martin, it was just another race. Albeit much longer than usual.

In the race itself, Martin’s rivals fell away one by one as the miles ticked by. He recalls: “I got to halfway and some athletes had dropped away. At 16 miles more vanished. At 20 miles it was by then a small group. I felt that as we went on at the same pace then more and more would drop off.”

Martin’s strategy was to let others lead and to just sit behind but he found himself accidentally creeping into the lead at some points. “I felt I was full of running,” he says.

READ MORE: AW’s original report from 1993

Passing Tower Bridge at around 22 miles there was a moment when he saw a group of friends and he waved and smiled. He wasn’t celebrating prematurely, though. “I was just trying to tell them ‘believe it or not I’m still here and feeling okay!’”

He adds: “It got to the point where it was just me and Rico battling it out and I was really familiar with battling it out with ‘AN Other’ at the end of a race – whether it was on the track, country or road. It was a very familiar scenario, albeit not at the end of 26 miles of running.”

» This is an extract from a feature in the April issue of AW magazine, which you can read here

The post Eamonn Martin: “I get no pleasure from the fact no British man has won London since me” appeared first on AW.

After lagging behind her contemporaries at youth level, the two-time Commonwealth medallist finally hit her stride in a Northern Champs 100m race that proved she had found her feet at the top level

It’s really easy to get fixated and think that, if you haven’t succeeded at under-18s or under-20s, it’s not going to happen. People develop at different rates. Puberty kicks in differently for both male and females. You shouldn’t get despondent if you don’t have this magnificent junior career. Because we know being an outstanding junior doesn’t mean you’re going to be an outstanding senior.

It took me a while to get used to training. And it took me a while to get my mindset that this is what I wanted to do. A positive back then for us was that there was no social media, so you didn’t have this ability to keep comparing yourself to everybody else. You had to wait until AW came out the week after to know what people had done.

People now can go online and you can get really fixated and distracted, whereas I had time just to develop: physically, emotionally and mentally.

We had a really good training group that included Shirley Strong who had gone to the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and came back with a silver medal in the 100m hurdles. After training together all that winter, my coach sat me down and said: “If you get really serious about this, if you put a really good winter in, you could do really well.” Up to then, I was only going three times a week. I was still working, just being young, still just going out with my friends. I was only 19.

I trained really hard that winter and didn’t miss a training session. I did weights, everything I was supposed to do and started the season really well. I won the County Championships but, in the context of my career, the Northern Championships were important to me.

My coach Jim Harris was driving us to the event and I didn’t notice the reverse psychology he was working on me along the way. He went through all the people I was going to be racing. He said: “X is running really well. Y was really fast.” He never mentioned anything about me.

Paula Dunn (Mark Shearman)

The way I function, I don’t really do praise. But if you say I can’t do something, then that generally gets the best out of me. So I got out of the car really annoyed and determined to show him that I was really good. That I could do this. That I could step it up when it matters. It probably helped it was a really long journey so I was really, really irritated. Jim was telling people I was going to try and prove a point.

I used to train with a girl called Jane Parry. She was really good, really young – at swimming and athletics and I’d never beaten her. Then I went and won the North of England 100m title in Manchester 1986 in 11.4.

That put me in the top two or three in the country. It was the catalyst for everything that followed. It was the springboard for me towards getting a first international vest in that year and then it set me up for the Commonwealth Games – and doing really well from 1986 onwards.

Jim was super chuffed because he’d asked me: “When are you going to do really well?”

We stopped for fish and chips on the way home, which is probably not the best thing to do, but I walked away that night thinking: “I’m actually a good athlete, I could do well in this sport.” It felt the appropriate thing for me going forward was being good on a national or international level.

Before that day, I probably thought doing well regionally was fine and so I think that’s where, mentally, I took a step forward. There’s always a race where it clicks and you could actually do something quite good. For me, it was that race. From that, I got selected for a B international. I went to Moscow with people like Clarence Callender and Tony Jarrett so it felt like the beginning of my career.

I went on to win the British Championships, which set me up to get selected for the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh and Europeans in Stuttgart. That was the definitely the year where it came through.

Having that patience from a coach does help and if you put all the tools and all the building blocks in the right place, then it will happen. It just may not happen at under-20. It might be under-23. As athletes, we need to be persistent and very consistent and keep doing the basics really well. That will just set you up for future success.

My coach was really good about setting up the basics. I was probably quite immature. I was very small, quite light and very lean. He just built me up gradually, year by year, and gave me a really good foundation with speed and strength, taking into consideration not just my biological age, but my physicality as well. So by the time I emerged in 1986, I was physically stronger, didn’t have many injuries and had a lasting career from such a good base.

» This article first appeared in the March issue of AW, which you can read here

The post My greatest race: Paula Dunn appeared first on AW.

The British indoor 1500m champion on a different mindset that has brought big changes

“I was standing on the start line knowing that I hadn’t worked to the best of my ability to be in the best shape at that time and I never wanted that feeling again,” says Ellie Baker, recalling the moment her mindset shifted.

It was 2020, and the 24-year-old admits she hadn’t dealt well with lockdown. “I’m very much motivated by competition and if I don’t have any goals to aim for, then I’m like, ‘What am I training for? What is this all towards?’” she says. “I think I got a little bit lazy because I didn’t really know what was going on and I just let a few things go. I got so unfit over that period of time and I missed an opportunity because there were races, and I was quite annoyed at myself for not keeping on it.

“It was a blessing in disguise really, because I feel like I had to go through that to make a decision. I was always there or thereabouts, but I wanted to make that next break. I was fed up with coming second or just missing out.”

Baker sat down with her brother at the end of that season and told him she wanted to make her mark. They agreed to create a plan to ensure she was on top of everything and that no stone would be left unturned. Their first aim was to get selected for the 2021 European Indoor Championships, where she finished fourth in the 800m.

British Indoor Champion

Wow! A simply stunning run from @EllieBaker1998 as she breaks Zola Budd's 1500m championships record going back to 1986

She clocks 4:06.73 and claims her maiden British title in the process pic.twitter.com/r1O1Pgb6fo

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) February 19, 2023

“It was a massive mindset change more than anything,” says the Shaftesbury Barnet athlete. “Since that day I’ve given absolutely everything.”

Weekly accountability meetings kept Baker in check and her times got quicker. In 2021 she made a breakthrough, going sub-two minutes for the first time over 800m (1:59.54) and taking over eight seconds off her 1500m best (4:06.54). In 2022 she went even faster, running 1:59.52 and 4:04.90. In addition, she finished eighth in the final of the European Championships 1500m and reached the semi-finals of the World Athletics Championships over 800m.

That she performed so well in 2022 is credit to her hard work after an injury put paid to the previous winter’s training. This winter has been uninterrupted and everything clicked with 1500m gold at the UK Athletics Indoor Championships in a championship record (4:06.73).

Her 11^th place in the 1500m final at the European Indoor Championships left Baker disappointed, but she went with the pace and believed she could win a medal.

In a memorable era for British middle-distance running, Baker is in the fortunate position that she can turn her hand to the 800m and the 1500m.

“My coach [Jon Bigg] very much wants me to do both,” she says. “He thinks I can be a very good 1500m runner. My endurance comes quite naturally to me, but I’ve also got natural speed.

“I preferred the speedier stuff growing up and I’ve done a little bit more of that, but when we’ve done longer sessions I’ve actually fared quite well. We hadn’t done many sessions to run that time (4:04.90) last summer, so he was excited by that, especially when I’d had the winter injured.

“I just can’t believe that! I didn’t expect it.” @EllieBaker1998 was in shock after she broke a 37-year-old British indoor 1500m champs record, held by Zola Budd, after clocking 4:06.73 in Birmingham

Plus won a maiden national title in the process

@euancrumley pic.twitter.com/86eUKo7P9J

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) February 19, 2023

“I think they go hand in hand and if you’re going to run a solid 1500m you’re going to run a solid 800m, and vice versa. With the middle distance being so stacked in Britain at the minute, if you can give yourself as much opportunity as possible, then that’s a smart move.”

Two years on from her first accountability meeting, Baker has no regrets.

“I’ve had to stay resilient and do it my way,” she says of her career to date. “Lockdown gave me the kick I needed. Now I will always be able to stand on the start line and know that I’ve put everything into it and whatever happens, happens, because I’ve got confidence in the work I’ve put in.”

» This interview first appeared in the March issue of AW, which you can read here

The post Ellie Baker on her middle-distance ambitions appeared first on AW.

We meet Marco Airale, the man who is guiding some of Britain’s top sprinting talent through a mixture of precision and obsession

All Marco Airale needs to see is a flash. A glimpse of something he can work with. As far as he is concerned, if an athlete can do something once, then they can do it again. He just needs to show them how.

The Italian splits coaches into one of two categories – artists and scientists. The man who is now guiding the careers of a number of Great Britain’s top sprinting talents firmly classes himself as the latter. He needs facts and evidence. He argues that his athletes do, too.

His training group, which is based in the Italian city of Padova that lies around 25 miles west of Venice, now includes a high-profile quartet of athletes at very different stages of their careers.

There is the young gun in the form of 21-year-old Jeremiah Azu, then there’s the more experienced pairing of Daryll Neita and Reece Prescod who are entering their peak years at 26 and 27 respectively.

Ama Pipi, also 27, a two-time national indoor 400m champion and part of Britain’s bronze medal winning 4x400m relay team at last year’s World Championships, is there too.

Then there’s Adam Gemili, a three-time Olympian who has been round the track more times than he would perhaps care to admit is one of their number, as well and is building for one last hurrah after recent years of controversy.

All have shown that flash and the potential to excel, says Airale. His job is to bring the big performances out of them right when it matters.

It’s a task he attacks with seemingly boundless energy. The Italian former multi-eventer, who is also a trained physio and osteopath who spent time working at the Juventus youth academy, is a particularly expressive individual. He is full of smiles and gestures, regularly jabbing the table with his index finger for emphasis during an animated chat in a Birmingham hotel.

He was there to support his athletes at the World Indoor Tour Final at the end of an indoor season which has had a purpose to serve but is not the main goal for his charges. It has unearthed some gems, though – two in particular which give him further cause to get excited.

Daryll Neita (Getty)

Neita has taken great strides forward, consistently going under the 11-second mark for 100m and becoming British champion over 100m and 200m. She also took the national indoor 60m title during this indoor season during which she also took European bronze.

However, the focus on this shortest of sprints has a much bigger target in mind and it was a performance away from the championships events which got Airale particularly animated.

“With Daryll when she ran 10.90, 10.95 and 10.97 she always went through the 60m point in 7.15-7.17 and her indoor 60m PB last year was 7.11 so she was not even able to replicate the 7.11 outdoor,” he explains.

“So for me the goal for this year was getting consistency around 7.10 and maybe into 7.09.

“But then she went and ran 7.05 [at the ISTAF meeting in Berlin]. So if we can get consistency and she can go through 60m [in times under 7.10]…do the maths, crazy times are going to come.

“When 7.05 came out and I put it down on my spreadsheet and saw the time that she can run I said: ‘Oh wow. This is something crazy’. We can go from being the best in the UK to one of the best in the world. This is a game changer.”

Reece Prescod (Getty)

It’s a similar story for Prescod.

“With Reece everything is new,” adds Airale of the man who arrived last October with Azu and Gemili. “Last year he ran his PB of 9.83 in Ostrava and I knew his 60m PB was 6.53.

“We didn’t work at all on his acceleration. We didn’t work at all in the blocks. We didn’t even do any speedwork and then we started to time him in training. I thought then that he could run under 6.60. He started with a 6.60 in Manchester and then 6.59 in Gent. But then 6.49 in Berlin [after a 6.54 in the heat]? No, no, no.

“If, if by any chance Reece is able to go through 60m in 6.49 and Daryll is going to run 7.05 the time we are going to see next is mad.”

It’s a big if and this is the point where the mental side of the sport – and the hardwiring of technique – comes to the fore. Prescod had looked ready to be a key challenger at the European Indoors, but came eighth. Neita took bronze but had mixed feelings about the performance, knowing she was capable of more than her run of 7.12 in the final.

However, as Airale says: “Even if it’s a flash and it’s just one time? They can replicate it. They just need to know how to replicate it. And sometimes that takes time.”

» This is an excerpt from an interview that appeared in the March issue of AW, which you can read here

The post The Italian who aims to make British sprinters the best appeared first on AW.

We hear from a former world indoor 60m champion who is not afraid of stepping out of his comfort zone

What your hardest but most rewarding training session?

I do have a very specific session for that. We usually do this session in the middle of November and December, then I would repeat that session in the end of March before the start of the outdoor season. We would do six repetitions of 150m sprints, broken down into two sets of three and have five minutes recovery between the reps. After the third rep we would go for a 10-minute rest and the last three would be a five-minute rest. The target times for each of the reps would have to be under 16 and-a-half seconds.

I used to run the session with long jumper Chris Tomlinson and he was one of the best jumpers we had in Europe. He was older than me and I was lucky to train with him. In preparation for my 2014, 2015 and 2016 seasons he was my main training partner at the Middlesbrough Sport village and we used to grind that session out.

It was always tough and were regularly laying on the floor at the end of the sessions throwing up. I knew if I could get this six reps all close to 16 seconds, or even if I could nail a few of them in under 16 seconds, I was in a really good shape. Chris was always pushing me to the wire in all of the sessions and he was quick for a long jumper. That was the training session that was most important to me when I had to gauge whether I was in shape or in good condition.

Richard Kilty (Mark Shearman)

What is the greatest achievement of your career and how would you describe the feeling of achieving it?

The clear stand-out was becoming world 60m champion [Sopot 2014] and it was just phenomenal to be described as the fastest man on the planet over that distance. You know, running that 60m over national championships is one thing but I was 66/1 in that final and it was the one that mattered.

To go through as a massive underdog and get a PB in the heats, semi-finals and then still not to be favourite in the final, and to run 6.4 seconds and be crowned world champion, is something that can never be taken away from me.

No matter what I’ll go on to achieve after that, it will live with me as the biggest thing in my career. It was such a shock. It was my first ever global title and the feeling was exhilarating. Every amazing emotion you can think of just overcame me. Nothing will top the emotions of winning that.

How did the pressures of being a pundit for the 2022 World Championships differ to competing?

My approach with the punditry is that I want to be very honest and be who I am. I don’t want to come across that I’m too media trained but be this voice of the athletes. I’m still competing and after a few injuries in the past few years I’ve been lucky enough that the BBC have chosen me to be one of the pundits. You’ve got to be clear, honest and analytical of what you say and sometimes a race replay will come on and you may have just six seconds to look at a 60m race.

You have to be very fast thinking but clear in your thoughts so it is a very different pressure but it’s one that I enjoy and would love to do more of in the future – especially when I retire from athletics.

Another thing which is a difficult balance is that if one of my team-mates has a difficult performance I want to be honest in analysing it but not too critical that I’m tearing them down. We are the people in the ears of millions watching from home and athletics doesn’t get enough exposure as it is. We want to create British athletes as stars and if we’re the ones responsible for talking to the public we do want to be as positive as possible about them.

Richard Kilty (Mark Shearman)

What advice do you have to somebody who wants to become a sprinter?

The first thing you’ve got to understand is that it’s a very high pressured event. It’s one of the fastest sports on the planet and you’ve got to be prepared to have the right mentality. You’ve got to be confident, in the zone and have the traits to block out anything and hyper-focus.

As it’s an individual sport you have also got to back yourself. It’s about being a sharp and aggressive thinker which allows you to react quickly, so being self-aware is also critically important.

If you’ve got a natural ability then you’ve got to put in the work, be prepared to take losses and when you do you then have to analyse that performance to find improvements. You won’t win every single race but then you can come back next week and beat the opposition. Be resilient as the chances are you will pick up injuries at some point in your career so look at yourself from a broader position.

So get down to your local athletics club and be brave enough to get on the line and compete. Once you do that then it’s possible for anyone who is willing to work hard and put in the hours to become a top sprinter.

» Subscribe to AW magazine here

The post Ask the athlete: Richard Kilty appeared first on AW.

Former world junior duathlon champion explains how her big leap forward to 2:26:18 for 26.2 miles was built on years of steady graft

When George Schwiening took five minutes and seven seconds from her marathon PB to go to seventh on the UK all-time list in December, the Cambridge athlete’s reaction was refreshingly humble. She tweeted her delight at her 2:26:28 in Valencia but asterisked it with: “I was in super shoes and half the top 10 all-time runs were without springs.”

Uncomfortable with sporting the carbon-plated footwear which have been responsible for a radical overhaul in elite road running standards in recent years, Schwiening did eventually give in last year. She might not like it, but rightly wants to be on a level playing field with everyone else.

That great leap forward in Spain was not just down to what she had on her feet, though. Her previous best, set in the Therme Manchester Marathon last April, was also run in carbon-plated shoes, and though quick to note the part played by technology, the former junior world duathlon champion also believes her improvement was a product of years of conditioning her body for the event and learning how to train for it.

Since her debut performance of 2:58:23 in 2017, Schwiening has completed 14 marathons, including her 11th place at the Commonwealth Games for England in Birmingham last summer. It’s been a remarkable progression — achieved without a coach, while working full-time and without ever training on a track.

The journey began with an active childhood. Schwiening took part in swimming, cycling, high-diving, rock-climbing, netball, hockey, gymnastics, tag rugby and trampolining before eventually focusing on running and triathlon. However, her swimming was relatively weak so she switched to the run-cycle-run sport of duathlon. As well as winning the world junior title in 2013, a world senior bronze followed five years later.

While running has lost several athletes to triathlon and duathlon in recent years, Schwiening went the other way — partly as a result of the pandemic limiting travel.

“A lot of the duathlon scene is in Europe,” she says. “With the travel, it didn’t seem quite the right thing to be doing, so it’s where the simplicity of running has its advantages. I suppose it wasn’t a conscious choice, it’s just that I haven’t done a duathlon for a while and the pandemic was part of that.”

Duathlon’s loss was running’s gain and Schwiening, who had already improved to 2:35:22 in 2019, continued to advance.

Georgina Schwiening (Mark Easton)

“Since my first marathon in 2017, I have just chipped off times and gradually improved,” she says, adding of her 2:26 run: “On paper it looks like a big jump, but I think I probably hadn’t always been able to show my fitness in the past. It also wasn’t a shock in the sense that that’s the time I trained to do and I set out at that pace.”

Her approach seems straightforward. Avoiding injury is key. “I just continued to chip away, being sensible,” says the 28-year-old. “Marathon training is mainly about avoiding picking up those niggles that can stop you – just listening to my body, building up really gradually and not taking risks.

“For me the most important thing is that your body is adapting at the same speed that you’re building. It’s making sure the training load is appropriate for the state your body is in.”

» This is an excerpt from an interview that appeared in the February issue of AW, which you can read here

The post Georgina Schwiening moving up in the marathon world appeared first on AW.

The Olympic champion’s ability to throw the javelin has propelled him to superstardom in his home country and helped a generation of Indian athletes to believe

The doors of the arrivals hall opened and life changed forever for Neeraj Chopra. When he walked out into New Delhi airport, Olympic gold medal in hand, he could see the thousands of well-wishers waiting outside the terminal to acclaim their new national hero. It didn’t take long for him to be engulfed.

“The point when I started doing the javelin was a life-changing moment in itself,” he tells AW through an interpreter. “But when I saw the crowds at the airport that day, I thought: ‘I’ve done something’. People started recognising me, wanted to be with me, wanted autographs with me. It has given me the motivation to keep trying to get better and to achieve more.”

He has set himself a high bar. That landmark Tokyo victory in 2021 made Chopra India’s first ever Olympic track and field medallist of any sort, let alone champion. August 7, the date when his throw of 87.58m wrote his name into the annals of history, is now celebrated as National Javelin Day in his home country. Few sportspeople have managed to make such an impression on the consciousness of a nation where cricketers tend to dominate the agenda.

Chopra’s Instagram following of 6.2 million people might still pale in comparison to the numbers commanded by great batsmen such as Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli, but it’s still the kind of attention which the majority of track and field athletes could only dream of – and that the sport needs.

Neeraj Chopra with fans (Getty)

There is a sense of momentum building in India. The country won eight athletics medals at last summer’s Commonwealth Games, adding to Chopra’s world silver from Oregon. Each one of those medallists cited his breakthrough achievements in helping them to believe.

“There has been a lot of change and growth in the sphere of athletics in the country, especially in javelin as a lot of youngsters have taken up the sport, plus a lot of young javelin throwers [including world finalist Rohit Yadav] did very well in the past season,” he says.

“World Athletics also announced recently that India were ranked ninth in the world overall when it comes to men’s field events last year. There is a lot of potential.”

Coming from a country with a population of 1.4 billion people helps, of course, but it’s also important to note that World Athletics’ media monitoring showed the 25-year-old to have been the most written about athlete of 2022, the first time in recent history that Usain Bolt has been overtaken in that particular race.

The endorsements have been plentiful, while the recognition is positive and significant, but it can also be a distraction. That’s why Chopra was to be found spending a substantial chunk of his winter not at his usual training base in Patiala, but at the High Performance Centre in Loughborough.

Thanks to the Indian government funded Target Olympics Podium Scheme (TOPS), he was able to spend two months operating in relative anonymity (there certainly weren’t crowds awaiting his arrival to the UK) and with the space to start laying foundations for another important year ahead.

“I had been to this facility once, last year, and quite liked it,” says the athlete who has also enjoyed long-term support from JSW Sports, a company which helps a number of India’s aspirational sportspeople. “I had a word with my team, and we were all of the opinion that I should train at Loughborough as it offers great facilities. All an athlete needs to focus on is training, which makes it a good option.”

» This is an excerpt from an interview that appeared in the February issue of AW, which you can read here

The post How Neeraj Chopra is inspiring a nation appeared first on AW.

American sprinter looks back at the Tsikliteria International in Athens in June 1999 when he stormed to a 9.79 world record for 100m

I was a reigning world champion but I was really just coming into my own. I’d gone to the World Championships in Athens in 1997 and won but I was still learning a lot about my race pattern and I really thought I could work on perfecting everything. That’s all I was really thinking of: perfecting the race. It wasn’t about how to get a whole lot faster.

When I was going to Athens for the meet, I wasn’t even supposed to run the 100m. I was going to go there and run a 200m but then, when I got there and I saw who was in the 100m, I was like: “Man, something is about to happen. I don’t know what it is, but I want to be a part of it.” 

So I called my manager Emanuel Hudson and told him: “I don’t care what you have to do, but you have to get me in this 100m race.” 

The night before he called me and said: “I got you in, but you’re only going to run one race [no preliminary heat] while everybody else is going to run two.” I didn’t care. 

When we got to the track, everybody was warming up. I was sitting down on the track watching the prelim heats, knowing only seven people were going to make it through since they were leaving the lane open in the final for me.

So that let me prepare. I just warmed up nice and easy, taking my time, winding down and just trying to perfect the race. When I ran in Athens to take gold at the World Championships, it was a little rocky as a race – it wasn’t as smooth as it could have been. I told myself: “Let’s make this a lot smoother this time. Because I know hands down what I’m doing is better than I did in the years before.”

The more confident you are, the better. Even when I’m coaching someone now, especially when I’m starting to work with them, and they’re trying to hurry and rush things and asking why they’re not getting it, I tell them the more confidence you get in yourself, the more confidence you’ll have in your race pattern – and the more patience that you can have so you won’t rush things so much.

When you start realising that, and stop caring about what or who’s around you, or anything else, that’s when everything starts flourishing for you. That’s what it was with me. I could be more patient. I wasn’t rushing my movements. I didn’t feel like I had to hurry up to get there. I let the process unfold by itself to run smoothly and then everything happened on its own. That’s because of the confidence you have within yourself.

Ato Boldon was my training partner. The year before, all we talked about was breaking the world record and we didn’t even get close to it. So then I just said: “You know what? I’m not even going to talk about it anymore.” I was just going to run the best race possible and not think about times. Once I started that, that’s when the times really started becoming faster.

Ato Boldon and Maurice Greene (Getty)

Ato was probably my toughest competitor. We worked together almost every day so I knew I had to be a little bit more patient than him. He would think about everything, even during the race, whereas I would feel my way through it. I wasn’t worried about anything else. 

My way worked for me, his way worked for him and even though he was leading for most of that race, I was a lot more patient. That made me a lot stronger at the end of the races, where I was able to overcome him, and it got me to the world record that night.

I didn’t even really see the clock when I finished until Ato came up to me and screamed: “Look, look, look!” My reaction was that finally I’d done something that I’d been saying I wanted to do for so long. I had finally done it.

And then, quickly, I thought: “I want to go faster. I want to do more.” That was just my way of thinking and how I did things. An hour later, I ran the 200m and Ato beat me. I’d exerted a lot of energy, but we trained for that, to run two races at the top of our speed.

READ MORE: Ato Boldon – ask the athlete

I think that night played into my getting the Olympic gold a year later in Sydney. I wasn’t worried about anyone else or anything else but obviously my confidence was a lot higher, knowing what I was capable of.

I’ve always maintained that I never ran the perfect race and that’s what I was always wanting to do. If I had been able to finish the perfect race, who knows what that time would have been? 

» As told to Mark Woods

» This article originally appeared in the February 2023 issue of AW magazine, which you can read here

The post Maurice Greene: my greatest race appeared first on AW.

Former European 800m champion is delighted to make a return to the track following the birth of her son and a series of injuries but she says she now feels like a very different athlete

As most new parents will testify, time is of the essence. For athletes specifically, no longer does there exist a great chasm between day and night, empty hours filled by training and the luxury of uninterrupted recovery. With a young child in tow, the work-life dynamic changes. Any pre-disposition to selfishness – a necessary characteristic in many elite sportspeople – has potential to shift to an entirely selfless existence. 

As Lynsey Sharp’s interview with AW commences, she laughs ironically when asked if her 16-month-old son Max is sleeping. “He’s so much fun to be around, but he’s just very high energy,” she says, relieved that her husband and fellow international athlete Andrew Butchart – they were married in December – has taken him out for a walk.

“I hear people [talking about their young children] who are like: ‘Yeah, they have a two-hour nap in the afternoon’. I’m like: ‘How?’ Imagine having two hours!”

Sharp may not have the free time she previously took for granted, but she’s now happy, healthy and enjoying a return to competition after injuries pre and post-pregnancy halted her progression.

Her first race back – a 1:28.91 600m victory at the Emirates Arena as part of the Glasgow Athletics Association Miler Meet in early January – represented a long-awaited comeback. In fact, it was her first race since the qualifying rounds of the World Athletics Championships in Doha in September 2019. 

Lynsey Sharp (Mark Shearman)

“It was just so nice to race,” reflects the Edinburgh AC athlete. “I’d trained there [at the Emirates] twice a week for however many weeks and I tried to think of it the same, but I was still so nervous, it didn’t feel like training at all. I’d waited so long to get back out there though, I wanted to make the most of it.”

It’s been a challenging yet invigorating few years for the former European 800m champion. In late 2019 she had surgery to remove pre-cancerous cells which were identified following a smear test. In 2020, in addition to the impact of Covid and moving back to Scotland, she was treated for a frustrating and enduring foot issue. Then, in May 2021, she announced she was pregnant. 

“Earlier on in my career, when I was younger, it would have never entered my head to have had a child while I was still competing,” explains Sharp. “It was more like that mentality changed as I got older, and after I met Andrew, and seeing other people do that more over the last couple of years.

“I was at a really difficult point. [Sponsors] Adidas had said they weren’t taking my option year and I’d also had a lot of injury problems. You then start to question, ‘Can my body do it?’ and that, coupled with thoughts of starting a family, we were just like, ‘If it happens, it happens, and whatever happens, that’s what’s meant to be.’”

» This is an excerpt from an interview that appeared in the February issue of AW, which you can read here

The post Lynsey Sharp’s mother of all comebacks appeared first on AW.

The 400m runner looks back at the Bislett Games in Oslo in July 1998 when he beat Michael Johnson and won in a PB of 44.37 from the inside lane

Just weeks before claiming European bronze, the two-time Olympic relay medallist became only the second man in nine years to leave the greatest 400m runner in history trailing in his wake.

Mark Richardson takes up the story…

There had been a change in my training regime. Martin Watkins, my coach up until Atlanta 1996, helped me towards winning an Olympic silver in the 4x400m relay. He did an absolutely fantastic job, but I had the opportunity to spark a coaching relationship with Roger Black.

He wasn’t actually my coach, but I guess Roger was so satisfied with clinching individual Olympic silver that he was just more open to inviting the competition in or maybe passing the baton on. I’ve got no idea why, but the time was right.

I was just like a sponge, I wanted to learn from him and I thought what he’d done was incredible so I wanted to model aspects that he brought. We chatted and he said: “Why not think about joining the training group?” It became a no-brainer, really.

His model was having a number of coaches that were almost reporting in to him. Mike Whittingham looked after the entire overall programme, but Roger had inputs from other coaches and I went to a much more speed-based coaching methodology.

Tony Lester was Roger’s sprint coach at that point and ultimately became my coach. They all put that greater emphasis on my qualities and you see what the athletes are doing now over the 400m. It’s scary. You look at how much real speed they’ve got and I just probably got on to it too late. If I’d done that earlier in my career, it could have been really quite interesting.

I had a supreme confidence in the base that I had built up. I felt quick and strong. Everything was pointing towards a good season. 

There’s no doubt that the Bislett Games is one of the meccas of track and field. It’s just hallowed ground. It’s been the host venue to some of the greatest athletes who have ever walked the planet, so that was huge. It was just electrifying. At the time, it was part of the Golden League and it was the first race of that year’s series so that gave it another special dimension.

Mark Richardson (Getty)

The line-up for that race was amazing. With those kinds of meets, promoters move heaven and earth to get the best athletes possible. The quality and depth was absolutely staggering. It was as good as the World Championships final of the previous year.

I was in Lane One. Iwan Thomas was in Lane Eight. Michael Johnson was in the middle. It was mouthwatering. Just getting into the race was great, but the lane wasn’t. When I saw the draw, I thought: “Okay, this isn’t cool.”

I started catastrophising a bit, trying to get on to my manager to see what he might do but that was more of a comfort blanket thing and then I had to get a grip and have a word with myself. I reframed it to how it would be quite a powerful statement if I could finish in the top three from that lane.

In Oslo, and during that season, it was all about adapting to the set of circumstances that I was in. It was trying to stay true to my race plan and understanding that you can’t sprint efficiently and effectively going around the turns, so you have to make some type of modification to compensate for that. It just works.

I guess there was something about the natural cadence of that race. I knew if I could stay in contention, I’d be alright. We came off the top turn and I was in contention. I wasn’t in the top three and may have been fifth, but the gap wasn’t so decisive that I couldn’t close it in the closing stages. Because I hadn’t gone off perhaps quite as quickly as I might have liked or anticipated, I just had more in reserve coming down the home straight.

I beat Michael Johnson. It wasn’t a championship or even one of my medals – perhaps the biggest accomplishments of my career came with the relay team – but in that race, I came out with a personal best performance. Michael recognised he wasn’t on his A-Game in that race but he’d been unbeaten for so long that to even see a tiny chink in his armour was a bit bewildering.

There’s a level of frustration that I didn’t go on to win the Europeans that year because it was within my own control. I fairly recently found out some interesting stuff about my childhood family dynamic and I think I was trying to prove something on that day in Budapest. That massively derailed me. I took the wrong mindset into that race, which meant I didn’t perform anywhere near the level I should have. That was on me. I don’t blame anyone else.

I now consult with organisations and I take a lot from being an athlete and setting performance goals, deconstructing things into thinking about what it is you’re trying to achieve, thinking about those performance milestones, those key performance indicators, and then breaking it down into bite-sized chunks that you can be doing, day in and day out. 

I’m a big believer in that. I learned that skill as an athlete – and the ability to compartmentalise as well. There are loads of things I probably didn’t realise that I was doing 20 years ago as an athlete, but I’ve got the benefit of really strong knowledge about performance psychology now. 

» This article first appeared in the January 2023 issue of AW magazine. Subscribe to AW magazine here

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A series of injuries resulted in Laura Weightman having to watch from the sidelines as her team-mates excelled at major champs but the European and Commonwealth medallist is confident of still making a mark

Laura Weightman is smiling, but it’s been a rough morning. First, she endured swimming in a cold pool, then – just when she needed it least – there was the added challenge of having to persevere with a cold shower. Relatively speaking, the leisure centre’s broken heating was only a minor issue. It’s the series of connected injuries which led to knee surgery in September of last year that have truly tested her resolve. 

The two-time European 1500m medallist, who had just started to explore her full potential over 5000m with a seventh-place in the 2019 World Championships final, was in fantastic shape when a seemingly innocuous knee niggle briefly interrupted her rhythm. She didn’t dwell on it. In fact, in 2020 – a lockdown year to forget for many athletes – she recorded personal best times over 1500m (4:00.09), 5000m (14:35.44) and 5km (15:10). “I thought it [the niggle] was a bit strange, but it was fine, so we cracked on,” says the 31-year-old Morpeth athlete. 

Weightman tore her soleus central tendon (in her calf) in November 2020 and didn’t run again until early January 2021. She worked her way back to fitness with a period of base training in the UK followed by an altitude camp in Boulder, Colorado, where, according to her coach Steve Cram, she was doing workouts she’d never done before. “I was absolutely flying,” she reflects. “There were some really positive signs.” 

Then, in the May leading into the 2021 British Championships which doubled as the Olympic trials, the grumbling knee returned. “We just couldn’t pinpoint it,” she says, her frustration still evident. “Then I tore my left hamstring the week of the trials.”

While that issue was an unwanted disruption which thwarted any Olympic ambitions, it was relatively minor. A “niggling” lateral Achilles followed in the August and, in September, Weightman got Covid. She took the opportunity to briefly pause and re-set.

Laura Weightman (Chris Cooper)

Like the incredible workouts in Boulder, a return to racing after six weeks of training and a 31:44 clocking at the Ribble Valley 10km – her second-fastest time ever over the distance – provided hope and motivation to push on.

A great training camp in Potchefstroom, South Africa, in January 2022 provided another peak, but soon after returning to the UK Weightman’s knee, again, required attention. This time a scan revealed a tear, but two days later that recurring niggle became inconsequential as she tore her calf. Such a significant injury required three months of no running, resulting in another missed summer. At that point, Weightman and her team decided to get it fixed as a priority ahead of a prospective knee operation.

An Instagram post in June 2022 read like déjà vu. “Sadly, I won’t be competing at the British Champs this weekend,” she wrote. “I’ve had a challenging few months dealing with a soleus injury and I’m just not ready to race…”

As she had done 12 months earlier, Weightman regained fitness relatively quickly, thanks in part to an effective cross-training programme. By July she was putting together some great track workouts and becoming confident that, by late August, she might have the opportunity to test herself in a couple of road races, not least to provide reassurance of her capability.

“And then my knee started bothering me again,” she says, resigned to the inevitable diagnosis. “We got it scanned and it was significantly worse than the February. The only option at that point was surgery.”

Weightman has endured an unfortunate and frustrating sequence of events, but her optimism and ability to get the best out of herself at every juncture is admirable.

Laura Weightman leads Laura Muir (Mark Shearman)

She underwent knee surgery in September and is now totally immersed in a rehab programme which commenced with two-and-a-half weeks fully off-loaded back at her parents’ house before returning (home) to Leeds. 

“I’ve taken a very cautious approach,” she explains. “I’ve gone slow on purpose because I want to get it right. I don’t want to rush it and be in a position where I need further surgery. 

“The first five to six weeks were very much light rehab in terms of letting the wounds heal, activating my quad, building the range of motion and slowly beginning to toe tap and weight bear. At that point we were happy that my wounds were healed enough that I could start swimming, so I’ve built that up from twice per week to four to five days per week. I’m also back in the gym.

“When I saw the surgeon at my eight-week scan he said my knee was more stable than it was in August, but it wasn’t strong. Phase two of the rehab is now about starting to move the knee through range with weights to build strength back in the meniscus. Essentially now I’m starting to bend my knee and do little mini squats, mini step ups, mini lunges, all within a controlled range. It’s a very diligent process but I’m seeing progress every single week now.”

While Weightman’s recent focus has been off-track, her British team-mates have been delivering on it. Dealing with an injury is hard, but to watch the performances of others play out on TV and social media adds another, complex dimension. 

“It’s been incredibly challenging being on the sidelines watching championships I want to be in because I just love to race,” she says; “but I’ve also been inspired seeing people’s performances and thinking, ‘I can do that or I want to be back there’. It’s added motivation to keep going. 

“I’ve had to draw a line under what I’ve previously done. With a healthy body, healthy knee… I know I can run again, so it’s almost like switching off and relaxing and focusing on the here and now. I can’t be sat on the sidelines jealous or worried about what other people are doing because that’s just going to delay recovery.

“It hasn’t changed my levels of motivation, determination and belief in myself to get back, it’s just made me stop and reflect and think, ‘You know what, how lucky have you been to do this for so long?’. I’m not giving up or stopping, I still want this, but I’ve realised I’ve been lucky to have this career to date. I’ve just got to go slow in this moment, not rush it and give myself a chance.”

Weightman has been inspired by glimmers of hope over the last two years, little reminders during sessions or in rare races that point to future potential waiting to be realised. She’s also seen friends come through major surgery successfully and cites European triathlon champion Non Stanford as a massive inspiration.

She can’t put a timeframe on her return to running. Importantly, she now knows that compensation – as a result of running with some level of tear in her knee for two to three years – was the likely cause of her recurring injuries.

“Going through this, I’d be lying if I said it had been easy, because physically and mentally it’s been really difficult,” she says. “There have been days where I’ve literally wanted to run away and forget about it, but to see Non come back has made me believe I can do the same and have another few years in the sport on my terms. 

“Someone asked me to share my journey recently and I said I can’t, because it isn’t finished. There’s still that underlying motivation of ‘what can I do with a healthy body?’ This isn’t the end.”

» This article first appeared in the January 2023 issue of AW magazine. Subscribe to AW magazine here

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World 200m champion wants to break new ground on the track but is also determined to change the profile of athletics and drag the sport into the future

The hip hop music plays in the background as the shutter clicks away. Noah Lyles is happy to strike a range of poses in his adidas/Gucci suit during the photo shoot, very much at ease in front of the camera and accepting of the attention. This is, he knows, a crucial part of his job.

While finishing first and breaking records on the track is his vocation, the American sees it as his business to sell – whether that be himself, his sponsor’s product or even the sport he loves.

Just 24 hours before his photographic appointment, Lyles sat down with AW ahead of the 2022 World Athletics Awards ceremony. He might have been beaten to the top prize by Mondo Duplantis, but the 25-year-old had plenty of other honours from his year’s work to console himself with. 

At the World Championships last summer, in front of a home crowd, he not only successfully defended his world title but also broke Michael Johnson’s 25-year-old US record in the process by running 19.31, the third-fastest time ever, and promptly ripped his sprint suit to shreds. There was a 4x100m relay silver medal to add to the collection, too. 

His roar of jubilation came from an internal fire which had been fuelled by a desire to prove the doubters wrong. After missing out on becoming Olympic 200m champion in Tokyo – that title went to Canadian Andre De Grasse – a lot of the talk before Eugene focused on 18-year-old Erriyon Knighton, who had clocked a brilliant 19.49 in his 2022 season opener. 

Lyles would finish first at the USATF Championships, however, before taking his opposition apart on that same Hayward Field track and winning the world title by 0.46 seconds from Kenny Bednarek and Knighton. He finished 2022 unbeaten in the 200m over 12 races, in fact, running all in under 20 seconds. 

Wearing an @adidas X @gucci suit, @LylesNoah is our January cover star

Away from the track, he chats to @TimAdams76 about:

– Why T&F is ultimately a business
– Marketing yourself through a Youtube docuseries
– Inspired by John Carlos and Tommie Smith

@DanVernonPhoto pic.twitter.com/ANrqAQ1QQw

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) January 5, 2023

“It’s definitely my greatest season ever,” says an excited Lyles. “I’ll constantly rewatch my races over again. It was that climax over again. In Oregon I went mad and produced the fastest time I’d run in years. It was important to have fans [back in the stands] and it was important to have that energy back. For me, it was a huge deal to be that showman and give back to the people. 

“I always describe the emotion as you have your dream in the shower, the hype, the adrenaline, how the announcers talk about you and how that will feel. It was pure adrenaline, enjoyment and excitement. Shoot for the stars and aim for the moon. There’s that point you where you think you can shoot for the world record [Bolt’s 19.19].” 

Noah Lyles (Getty)

Lyles is the opposite of enigmatic and there’s an admirable, intriguing restlessness about him. He is an engaging, complex character and has spoken openly in recent years about his struggles with depression, as well as dealing with dyslexia and being diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder as a youngster. Being the focus of a crowd, he admits, can be both delightful and difficult.

“The joyful moments are just that much more exciting when we reach out to people we can connect with,” he says. “Usually those are people who have been on the journey with you, so when you have family or team members, you can confide in them and truly enjoy those moments.”

» This is an edited version of a feature that appeared in the January issue of AW magazine. To read the full article, CLICK HERE

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Commonwealth 1500m champion plans to use Saturday’s big event in Bathurst to remind his sports-mad nation that they have athletes to shout about 

For Olli Hoare, the city of Boulder in Colorado feels a long way from home. It’s over 8000 miles away, in fact, from Caringbah in New South Wales. 

The Australian won’t deny feeling a sense of detachment at times but he also accepts it’s part of the deal which comes with being a professional middle-distance runner and a member of the On Athletics Club group (OAC), which is based in the shadow of the Rocky mountains. 

Having gone to college on a scholarship at the University of Wisconsin, the 26-year-old has lived in the US since 2015 and gets home when he can. He did spend some time back down under with his family over Christmas, but it’s an upcoming trip to his native state which he admits carries particular significance. 

The man who struck Commonwealth 1500m gold in Birmingham, breaking the championship record in the process, will form part of the host nation’s mixed relay team at the World Cross Country Championships in Bathurst on Saturday (Feb 18).

Not only will it be a cherished opportunity to pull on the green and gold of Australia, but also a very rare chance for friends and family to come and see him in action at the very top level. 

There is a wider ambition at play, too. While Aussie Rules football, rugby league and cricket dominate the headlines, Hoare is desperate to offer a reminder to his sports-mad nation that they have a lot to shout about when it comes to track and field, too.

And none more so than Hoare himself. On top of that Commonwealth win, in which he became the first Australian men’s 1500m champion at the Games since the great Herb Elliott, the Tokyo Olympic finalist also holds a number of national records. 

His indoor times of 13:09.06 for 5000m, 3:50.83 for the mile and 3:32.35 for 1500m are Oceania records, too, while he is also quickest for his country over the mile outdoors (3:47.48) and his 1500m mark of 3:30.12 is bettered only by his world cross relay team-mate Stewart McSweyn.

Operating in a truly global sport in which just about every nation imaginable competes, there is frustration that these athletes don’t get the recognition they might deserve. Staging big events helps and, with the Victoria Commonwealth Games still three years away and the Brisbane Olympics not taking place until 2032, the World Cross has an important role to play.

“[Opportunities like this] are extremely rare,” says Hoare. “Sydney 2000 was such a big deal and we had moments like Cathy Freeman winning the 400m.

“Having these kinds of events in Australia, hopefully it helps to get a lot of the youth involved. Those kids are looking for inspiration and looking for athletes to look up to, to follow and become passionate about sport. [The problem is] track and field is an extremely hard sport to follow!”

Olli Hoare (Mark Shearman)

He adds: “It’s really tough because most of the time if you’re fortunate enough to get a mention on the TV, they might mispronounce your name or not know your background fully but, in the Olympics and in a situation where the event is at home, you do have more exposure.”

There is a concerted effort from Athletics Australia to spread the word and this month will also see the staging of the country’s first World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting in Melbourne. 

“Having some of our top talent [at Bathurst] hopefully builds up a lot of our youth getting excited about athletics,” says Hoare. “That’s a big part of what Athletics Australia are trying to do – to keep the hype going because we’ve got some amazing athletes in track and field at the moment. To keep pushing young athletes to aspire to be better than us is the main goal.

“We’re probably the furthest away from anybody on the planet – it’s really hard to get to us – but it’s hopefully giving more attention to us internationally as well as locally.”

» This is an edited version of an article that appears in the February issue of AW magazine. To read the full feature, click here

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AW speaks exclusively to four British athletes who reveal their distressing experiences at the start of the Valencia 10km

The last thing you’d expect as an athlete going to a race is to fear for your own safety.

That is what happened at the Valencia 10km on Sunday (Jan 15). As soon as the gun went off at the event – a World Athletics labelled road race – athletes’ attention quickly turned to the wellbeing of themselves and others around them rather than the personal bests they were striving for.

Four British athletes have now described their experience of the event to AW and said that there was a “general consensus of panic” among the packed pens before the beginning of the race, to elite women “screaming on the floor” as they were trampled on by helpless runners who fell like skittles.

Only one of the four British runners that spoke to AW completed the race and all of them have various degrees of marks, from small scratches to swollen and bruised knees.

These are athletes who are not at a world elite level and largely funded their own trip, including flights and accommodation, to one of the fastest 10km races in the world. The aim was obvious. To record a time in Valencia that could lead to raising their profile and potentially getting bigger and better sponsorships.

It’s a quick course. The men’s world 10km record and second fastest time ever were both set in the Spanish city while half of the fastest 10 women’s times in history over the distance were recorded on the route.

There’s a reason why the Valencia 10km set the entry limit for the race at 12,000. It’s popular. Up to 100 Brits made the trip to Spain and quite a few, including Samantha Harrison, achieved personal bests.

However, many did not finish and dreams were dashed. Others did but it was out of pride more than striving for perfection.

An “inevitability” from the race build-up

Elle Twentyman, 27, went to Valencia to improve her 10km personal best of 32:56. The 2021 Brighton Marathon 10km winner was hoping to start off 2023 with a bang and forget about the experience of her last race over the distance, the Corrida Pedestre Internationale de Houilles on December 30.

The French event, which had a strict entry standard of sub-44 minutes for women and sub-37 minutes for men, had a giant tree just metres from the start line obscuring athletes. Such an object in close proximity to hundreds of runners made it impossible for some not to fall and Twentyman ended up on the floor.

Bravo à Aurelie Canu qui améliore son record de 6 secondes sur 10km malgré une chute dès le départ !
Un vrai chamboule tout le départ de la Corrida de Houilles pic.twitter.com/8Mb5g5WzGn

— Long Run Crew (@Longruncrew) December 19, 2022

She hit her head and told AW that the race organiser got in touch to ask whether she’d been involved in the incident.

Such vivid memories came back to Twentyman as she was preparing to start the Valencia 10km. Pinned together “like sardines”, athletes struggled to move either their hands or legs as they waited anxiously for the event to begin.

“Initially, they had separate areas. So about 20m for the elites and 50m for the sub-elites and then separate pens going back for sub-31, sub-33 and sub-35 for example,” Twentyman recalls.

“Theoretically, it worked but the men in the sub-elite pen were so eager to get forward to the next pen ahead of them then they were pushing up against the tape. 

“I don’t want to sound dramatic but because it happened to me before, I almost felt like I was going to have a panic attack as I was completely trapped. I had nowhere to move my legs or arms and this guy was pushing up behind me.

“Even at that point there were men still trying to get in front of you and although there was no space they wanted to push in front of me. That pressure kept coming from behind but we were then pushed backwards.

“If you don’t have space to push your legs up, you’re going to go into the person in front of you which causes them to trip. I felt it [the impending crush] was unavoidable.”

In among the thousands of runners about to take on the Valencia 10km was Sarah Astin, 29, who finished 16th representing the Isle of Man in the 5000m at last year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Sarah Astin (Southern Relays)

Like most of the athletes, she was expecting a fast time but attention soon turned to the crowd around her instead of the race itself. Due to one of the athletes on the England team pulling out, Astin was promoted to the world elite pen. As a runner with a 10km best of 33:17, she thought it was strange that she was placed in front of elite men who could run over two minutes quicker than her.

“That scared me a little bit beforehand anyway and I was slightly confused why I would start in front of the elite men,” she says. I didn’t want to do that. I’d never been on a start line like that. Everyone was scared and it wasn’t great.

“On a start line you usually have your feet separated and ready to go but my feet were touching and we were literally waddling. They wanted to get going at 9.30am. I didn’t expect them to start.”

Another one of the British athletes in the mix was Dan Studley, 31, who won the 2019 Windsor Half Marathon and competed in the 2018 World Half Marathon Championships.

Like everyone else, he couldn’t move. “I was three or four rows back and I could barely breathe on the start line,” he tells AW. “You couldn’t move to press your watch and I was completely crushed. Then three steps later when the race kicked off there were bodies all over the floor.

“There was no personal space. You were just stood with your feet together and arms by your side. When you’re trying to get a personal best in the 10km, you want to be ready and set. It’s stupid really.

“The elite athletes weren’t protected. I appreciate there were a lot of them and it was a pretty unique race. The race director was hoping for a 100 sub-30 runners. If those were safeguarded at the front and given a few metres I think the situation would’ve been fine.”

Josh Lunn (Graham Smith)

The final British athlete that we spoke to was Josh Lunn. He, alongside Twentyman, Astin and Studley, all corroborate that while the athletes were split into certain pens based on their ability before the start of the race, the tape separating the pens either “broke” or was “left unmanned” and athletes poured forward into the next pen. One after the other.

At the front the world elite, including world 10km record-holder Yalemzerf Yehualaw, 23, were stretching out ahead of the big race. Just before the gun went off, as you can see on the Valencia 10km stream, the world elite men were pushed back behind the tape which marked the start line.

The momentum of those athletes getting moved combined with athletes from pens further back breaking through the tapes separating each section, meant runners, roughly 10m back from the start line, saw any space around them evaporate.

“There were two guys with some tape and there was one athlete who wanted to go under the tape when the two men were there,” Lunn says. “Probably five minutes before the start they moved away and one of the athletes jumped underneath the tape. 

“That set a whole chain reaction off where everyone kind of panicked and they followed. So you’ve got all of the guys in the second pen at the front of the first pen. I remember seeing Sarah [Astin] and Lucy [Reid] who turned around and went ‘oh my god, what’s happening’. 

“You had to go forward as everyone was pushing from behind. So we ended up at the front of the start line. I don’t know how many people were in that first pen but they had pushed all of those people to the front and there wasn’t any space.”

Start line (10K Valencia Ibercaja)

Studley’s experience of runners getting into pens that didn’t match their vest number is similar. “People did what they wanted,” he adds. “They were jumping under the tape. It would’ve been very easy to be recreational runner and be on the front row with world record-holders. It was too easy to get somewhere you shouldn’t have been. 

“I was behind some tape, waiting about 10m behind the start line and they just poured forward. The world elites then had to come back on the start line.”

The gun goes off and carnage ensues 

At 9.30am the race began and thousands of runners leapt out of their position. Success stories followed. The most notable performance from the event was Yehualaw giving her own world 10km record a fright. The Ethiopian clocked 29:19, missing the illustrious mark by just five seconds.

Behind the first few rows of runners was a different story though. Given the close proximity of the athletes it only took one to fall to create a cacophony of chaos.

Yalemzerf Yehualaw narrowly misses her world 10km record in Valencia and Sam Harrison goes No.4 on UK all-time rankings, but start line stampede dominates social media as runners go down like skittles in mass pile-up. https://t.co/a9g4nMGTk8

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) January 15, 2023

All four British athletes told AW that they only took “between three and four steps” before falling into the bodies that had already hit the ground in front of them.

“As I tried to get up I immediately got pushed back on to the ground and that happened around six or seven times,” reflects Lunn. “The worst thing was that there was a girl on the floor next to me was screaming.

“I genuinely felt like I was being crushed. That’s when I got worried as I didn’t know when it would stop and I couldn’t get up. That was not great. 

“Those thoughts [asphyxiation] went through my head. It happens very quickly. I didn’t see the other side of the road but I definitely knew there were one or two people below me and three of four people on top of me. 

“I don’t think my breathing was any different to normal but I was just sort of panicking. Straight after it didn’t feel any different and I was just thinking I’d lost a lot of time and my mind was on the racing.”

The organisers, on Instagram, stated: “According to our reports, no one suffered serious injuries. Some runners suffered bruises and one elite Brazilian athlete a dislocated shoulder.”

For Twentyman, the crush was déjà vu from her last 10km race in Paris.

Scènes surréalistes au départ du @10KValencia ce matin ! pic.twitter.com/4D9i6JaKA6

— RUN’IX (@RUN_IX) January 15, 2023

“The falling down is one thing and the initial ‘oh my god, that hurt’ but then the scary part is that you just can’t get back up as you had hundreds of people that keep running over the top of you,” she adds.

“They just stand on you, run on you and push you back down.

“I didn’t really realise how much my back and back hurt from it after I tried to lie down and thought ‘this really hurts’. My first thought was ‘oh no, not again’. I was thinking ‘what was I doing wrong?’ and in a way found it a relief to watch the video and that it was nothing to do with me. You don’t really process it at the time.”

Studley told AW he had raced for over 20 years and this was the first time in his life he failed to finish. Battered and bruised, he got up to find his race bib had been ripped off his running vest.

Studley, Lunn and Twentyman all recount how they spent between “20-30 seconds on the floor” and tried and failed to get up nearly “half a dozen times”.

“I caught up with Sam [Harrison] but my back started really aching and my back and front numbers got ripped off,” Studley says. “All my adrenaline drained when I started moving I was so flat. I used all my energy trying to get up.

“I’m surprised [no one was critically injured]. The way I was getting crushed on the floor, it would have only needed one runner to stamp on my head instead of my back to create a potentially very serious incident.

Dan Studley (Windsor Half Marathon)

Astin however was more fortunate and escaped the melee with just a few scratches. She however pulled out of the race around the 6km mark.

“I was just sprinting and thinking ‘get me out of here’. As I started in front of these fast guys everyone was still flying past me because I started in the completely wrong part of the race,” she recalls. “I understand the girls aiming for world records but a lot of girls didn’t want to be there and we were running blind. 

“I was actually sick the day before and probably shouldn’t have started the race but I was fine on the morning. I genuinely think I got further in the race than I would’ve done because of the adrenaline!”

Lessons to be learnt

The key question is how do you help prevent a situation like this from occurring again?

While all four athletes suffered similarly distressing experiences at the start of the Valencia 10km, they each have slightly different solutions on how to mitigate such events in the future. All ideas which seem sensible.

“We needed more segregation between the waves,” Lunn says. “If you had a bit more space or people starting on the other side of the road I think you would’ve been fine.

“If those two men hadn’t moved and held everybody back then the risk would’ve been lower. The other thing that I found is that because you had so many high level people was that when you mix in them in it can be quite dangerous.”

Astin, who helps organise races outside of her running, even suggests that the race could’ve been stopped and restarted by “marshals with radios 200m away from the line” but is sympathetic with organisers who “wouldn’t have known how to react to such an incident”.

“I know there are 12,000 people on the start line but you could’ve got everyone back if you started 10 or 15 minutes later,” she adds. “They could’ve even had a team of people 100m to 200m down the route on the radio just crossing the road and saying to the runners that they have to stop because they need to restart the race.”

Twentyman, who finished the race in 33:30, will hope that her next 10km is not as rough as her last couple. Recharging the batteries is now on the agenda but she says “walking is painful and going down the stairs is difficult”. Twentyman hopes that the next Valencia 10km includes a wider start line.

Elle Twentyman [centre] (Brighton Marathon)

When approached for comment, World Athletics said: “The safety of runners participating in World Athletics Label races is our utmost priority.

“We will liaise with the race organisers to assess the incident and discuss the safeguards they will put in place to prevent any such incidents in the future.”

In their statement on Instagram, the organisers added: “We apologise for any inconvenience this incident may have caused to all involved. The safety of the participants is most important.

“The organisation had arranged a thoroughly distributed exit so that runners could be placed according to their intended marks in the enrolment process.

“Nevertheless, it didn’t all go well. Due to the density of runners, we absolutely understand that we need to step up the improvement measures again at this point. We will study from now on possible changes in the exit for the welfare and safety of riders, which is our utmost interest.

“After this incident, the race went on with total normality with about 10,000 participants reaching the finish line.”

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Olympic pole vault medallist admits she struggled after the highs of Tokyo and explains why she wants to see athletes receiving help in dealing with the Games experience

For some athletes, 2022 offered the chance to follow up the Tokyo Olympics in spectacular style. For others, however, things have not been quite so straightforward. 

When Holly Bradshaw returned from Japan with a bronze medal, it was the culmination of years of hard work. It represented reaching the pinnacle of her sport. The strange thing was that, when she came home, the British pole vault record-holder found herself lacking in energy and motivation.

She recalls the autumn of 2021: “I achieved something that I wanted to achieve my whole life but, when I returned home, I had no energy and felt down for a good few months.

“I would just lie on the sofa and get upset for no reason, which is not like me at all.  My husband would say: ‘What’s wrong?’ And I couldn’t tell him because I didn’t know anything was wrong and I couldn’t explain it.”  

Holly Bradshaw (Mark Shearman)

Bradshaw was recovering from glandular fever but also thinks she was suffering from “post-Olympic blues” and is determined to help others understand it and see safeguards put in place. 

Her interest in the subject resulted in the publication of an academic paper* which starts: “The post-Olympic period is complex and distressing for many Olympic athletes; preparing for the likely impacts of the Olympic Games amongst returning athletes is fundamental in managing the negative responses articulated as the post-Olympic blues.”

While an Olympic pole vault competition is, at face value, no different from a World Championships, the hype surrounding it takes things to a new level and creates way more pressure on the athlete. 

There is, what researchers have called, the “celebritisation” of Olympic athletes, in a way that does not happen with the World Championships. The Olympics is always in the news. Everything seems to be about the Olympics. Athletes are invited to a kitting-out ceremony to receive the full range of GB logoed clothing, while individual sponsors make a fuss of the athletes and at the Games they receive gifts.

 “Loads of things are thrown at you to make you feel special,” says Bradshaw, whose 2022 was blighted by injury. “You feel that you’re part of something really special and that is great. But then there is that stark comparison when you come home and you have nothing. And that is difficult for athletes.

“My experience, and that of a lot of other athletes I think, is constantly hearing ‘you’re amazing, you are special, going to the Olympics’ and then the day you get home and it’s nothing – no support.”  

Holly Bradshaw celebrates in Tokyo (Getty)

There is also what has been called the “commodification” of athletes. At the Rio Olympics, Bradshaw came fifth but felt like she was a failure or, rather, felt that other people saw her as such. 

“I felt I’d done a really good job finishing fifth and I was really happy but it seemed that nobody really cared. No one said ‘well done, amazing effort’ or anything like that. I felt I came home to being a failure because I didn’t win a medal. 

“For me, that was really hard because I thought I’d done a good job. We all know that everyone wants to go out and do a PB and win a medal but that need not be your sole goal.  And for me, changing that mentality to ‘I’m doing it because I love it. I’m doing it because it’s fun’ has helped me to be happier and to stay in the sport.

“It is in the culture of sport that you are there to win and that is hammered home. But there are not many organisations out there which promote an intrinsic culture. Some sports have a ‘what it takes to win’ model and I think that’s what’s wrong with sport. Perhaps a better motto would be ‘be the best prepared, the best supported athletes out there’.” 

In the paper, Bradshaw cites the example of seats on the plane home from the Olympics being allocated by performance, with medal winners at the front and “losers” at the back – even if those “losers” had achieved a PB or reached the final of their events – as something which “sends the wrong message about what sport is about”.

One of Bradshaw’s suggestions is the appointment of a welfare or care officer, there with the sole goal of ensuring that everyone is okay. Someone “to support people but not in a sports psychology capacity but just as someone who could listen, support and give advice”. This was tried at the Beijing Winter Olympics. 

Holly Bradshaw (Mark Shearman)

Bradshaw also feels it is important that the care officer is not the team sports psychologist. Her research found that a lot of athletes were very hesitant about speaking to the team psychologist because they were wondering “is this conversation confidential or will it be fed back to management?”

Bradshaw also believes more use could be made of former athletes in supportive or mentoring roles. “For example, former European champion, James Dasaolu has just retired. He could be a help to young up and coming sprinters,” she says.

“I would love to see an organised peer to peer athlete support group with the involvement of British Athletics and with some investment. I think it was Roger Black who recently said in AW that he doesn’t understand why he has never been asked to help.” 

» Holly Bradshaw, Karen Howells & Mathijs Lucassen (2022) Abandoned to manage the post-Olympic blues: Olympians reflect on their experiences and the need for a change, Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health can be found at tandfonline.com

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Ten years after racing for Britain at the Euro Cross, the Bristol-based runner has reinvented herself as a marathoner and impressed on her debut in London

Hannah Alderson quietly produced one of the British success stories of the 2022 TCS London Marathon. Setting off from the championship start, she flew under the radar to clock 2:35:56. It was a time beaten on the day by only one British woman – Rose Harvey with 2:27:20 from the elite start – and placed her 11^th female overall. What’s more it was her debut at the distance and achieved off a training programme of just four runs per week.

It is almost 10 years to the day since Alderson competed for Britain at the European Cross Country Championships on a snowy course on the outskirts of Budapest. Back then, in December 2012, she was part of an under-23 team that included Beth Potter, Lily Partridge and Jess Piasecki – the latter of whom struck gold that day.

Alderson did not enjoy the best run in Budapest as she had been unwittingly running on a stress fracture in her navicular bone for several weeks. Surgery soon followed with pins placed in her ankle and, as she drifted away from competitions, she began to focus on a career as a primary school teacher rather than an elite runner.

Hannah Alderson in 2012 (Mark Shearman)

During her break from the sport she continued to run a little to keep fit, though. The past two years have seen her jump into a few more competitions as well – winning some local road races – and she prepared for London in October under the guidance of her long-time coach, Alan Thomas.

“It definitely went better than expected,” says Alderson on her London run (main image, above). “I surpassed the target time that I had in my mind. You never know what to expect in your first marathon so I was pleased with the outcome and it’s given me confidence that I can run a little quicker next time.

“I was worried about hitting The Wall but I listened to my body and managed to get across the line without blowing up too much.”

Impressively she only runs about four times per week and had a longest run of 22 miles going into London. Yet she felt good most of the way and feels she has generally always raced better at longer distances.

“I probably could run more than four times per week but I don’t want to,” she says. “I like the balance of my training and work and down time. So I think I have that (balance) spot on at the moment. I’d still like a PB though and I think I can do this with some small adjustments.”

She adds: “I think high mileage works for some athletes but not others. I think I’ve run well off low mileage. I feel fresher before I run and I can get good quality sessions done. Even my long runs have had some of the miles done at race pace, which seems to have worked well.”

The Bristol-based athlete was a talented teenage runner who won medals at the English Schools and UK School Games at 3000m. That ability is now emerging in the marathon and she is hoping to take more time off her best in the 2023 London Marathon in April.

“I hope her story will be an inspiration to other athletes who have been unable to compete for whatever reason that ‘class is permanent’,” says her coach. “With hard work and sensible goals it is possible to become competitive again and enjoy the rewards that our wonderful sport can provide.”

Hannah Alderson in her youth (Mark Shearman)

Does she regret having such a long break from competitions? “Because I’d trained so seriously from a young age I realised I’d missed out on quite a lot such as social things,” Alderson reflects.

“I’d been very focused on one thing – running – and it was quite a lonely sport in the end. There had been a big group of us going warm weather training etc but as they dropped out then I stayed in it and I felt a bit lonely and isolated. It was quite nice to just be able to run for the enjoyment of it and not getting worried about how I’d race or whether I was doing enough training.

“It was heart breaking to get the stress fracture (in 2012) when I was at peak fitness but later on I realised I didn’t want to go through the injuries and frustrations again.”

After her injury-hit period a decade ago together with a long hiatus from competing, the 30-year-old is keen to simply enjoy the sport. She has little to prove, especially as far as her primary school pupils are concerned. They already think she has won the London Marathon anyway!

“The other teachers worded it to the kids that ‘Miss Alderson won the London Marathon’ so I had to tell them I won the non-elite women’s section. But that meant nothing to the kids. They just thought I’d won the London Marathon!”

She adds: “The interest shot up at their running club after school. A lot of them ducked out of judo and went running instead, so the judo leader wasn’t best pleased.”

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The 1988 Olympian and mother of world 1500m champion Jake recalls recalls becoming the first British woman to break the 70min barrier for half-marathon at the Great North Run

I was ranked fourth in Britain over 10,000m in 1988 behind Liz McColgan, my twin sister Angela (Tooby) and Jill Hunter. On paper, I wasn’t going to the Seoul Olympics so Harry Wilson, who was coaching us, said: “Well, there’s only one way to go, and that’s upwards.”

I knew that I potentially could run a reasonably good marathon and Harry set my programme of racing really specifically for the marathon but also not to lose any speed.

I was training fast miles on a long distance. If you think about it, if I was a reasonably good 10,000m runner and potentially not a bad marathon runner, then at the pace that I was going at, the distance I was going to run best at was the half-marathon.

Harry wasn’t a great believer in doing high mileage and I never exceeded 80 miles [in a week]. The time I did 80, I had shin splints, so I wasn’t really an athlete who could cope with too many miles. Those I ran were quite qualitative.

That, coupled with the regular interval sessions that I was doing with the rest of the squad, meant I still did the same reps as Angela, who was training for the 10,000m and that’s probably where I built up my endurance more.

Susan Wightman (Mark Shearman)

The two of us had quite a good relationship in terms of training. When we were both running the same distances, I never expected to be in front of her, which maybe was not such a good thing. Even in training, I always expected to be slightly behind her. I never had that extra drive to try and beat her because I always felt that I couldn’t. 

Moving up to the marathon probably gave me a little bit more confidence in myself, because I wasn’t competing against her and this was something I could do that she probably wasn’t quite as good at.

But we were ideal training partners really. The difference between us was marginal. I didn’t particularly enjoy the 10,000m. Had the 5000m been a championship event then, I think both of us would have stuck to it and wouldn’t have stepped up from the 3000m to 10,000m.

The organisers gave me accommodation the night before the Great North Run but the previous night we’d driven up from Herefordshire and camped near to Hadrian’s Wall. My dad was so cold, he ended up sleeping in the car, so the preparation wasn’t the best. I probably didn’t have enough sleep. I hardly slept at all that night.

But, in a way, it just goes to show that I was probably quite relaxed about it. Going into the race, there was no pressure on me because my fastest time was in Reading the previous year where I ran 72-something, which was still quite reasonable in those days.

But to shave two-and-a bit-minutes off (with 69:56) is quite a lot. I knew I could potentially run around 70 minutes because the Reading course is probably harder than the Great North and I was in better shape by the time I went to the Great North. 

I don’t think I put a lot of expectation on myself. It was a benchmark towards the marathon. I can remember lining up and there was Veronique Marot who I was expecting to finish in front of me. I probably overtook her inside the first three miles and never saw her again which, at that time, was the only indicator that I actually was running quite well.

The funny thing was that when we got to about three or four miles in, I realised there was a guy there who was part of my training squad. I ran with him for probably two-thirds of the way which was actually quite a help to me but I had absolutely no idea what time I was running, what pace I was on or where I was in the field. That’s the difference from today. In those days, the women just didn’t know.

Susan Wightman in Seoul (Mark Shearman)

It wasn’t the first time I’d run against Grete Waitz, because we’d run quite a lot on the roads over in Scandinavia and in cross-country. I wasn’t in awe of her but I thought she was a tremendous athlete. I never believed I would ever be in contention with her. So to finish second to her was unbelievable and a surprise. 

Afterwards, all these people wanted to interview me. It was all mind-boggling, that I’d run under 70 minutes, and I’d broken the British record. There was absolutely no way during any part of that race that I knew that I was anywhere near the British record. It wouldn’t have even entered my head to know what the British record was. I was that casual about it.

READ MORE: My greatest race archives

I never set myself the goal of getting the Olympic medal after that in Seoul because that was just unobtainable. For me, it was only really my third-ever marathon. And I didn’t feel as if I was an experienced marathoner.

But I went out there wanting to be the first British finisher. We had two laps of the track once we got into the stadium at the finish and I think Angie Hulley overtook me on the first one. So I’d already run nearly 26 miles and that was that bit of glory lost. I found that quite difficult.

What I did now gets swallowed up by Jake’s achievements. I’m not sure my kids really realise I’d had a British record at one time and also Jake’s now the athlete in the house. My achievements are slightly irrelevant, and I’m not bothered about that at all.  

FACTFILE
Susan Wightman (née Tooby)
Date of birth: October 24, 1960
Events: 3000m 10,000m, marathon
PBs: 3000m: 8:57.17, 10,000m: 32:20.95, half-marathon 69:56, marathon: 2:31:33
Achievements:
1988: London Marathon fourth, Olympic marathon 12th
1986: Commonwealth 10,000m sixth

» This article first appeared in the December issue of AW magazine

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British endurance athlete on racing at the Olympics, winning the world 50km title and her advice for budding marathon runners

What it was it like to represent Great Britain at the Olympics in the heat and humidity of Brazil in 2016? 

It was honestly a dream come true. Just to be at the Olympics was amazing and it was something I had dreamt of for 25 years. It was something I never actually thought would happen. There’s only a very small number that actually make it.

The emotions of crossing the line at the London Marathon which saw me qualify were overwhelming. There was relief, disbelief but also sadness because I lost a few relatives in the run-up, so they never saw me represent Great Britain at the Olympics. 

However, my mum and dad were out in Brazil and they were cheering me on. Everyone who was out in Brazil said it was boiling hot but I was just focused on my performance and I had trained a lot for the heat so I didn’t feel the effects too much.

I’d been in Font Romeu doing some warm weather training, running in all your sweats in 28 degrees while we had ice packs and bands for the warm-ups. 

During the race it was about taking on as much fluid as possible and pouring water over your head. It was also about adjusting your pace to deal with the climate. It was a war zone from as early on as 5/10km. I ended up finishing 27th and it was a fantastic experience all round. 

How do you manage to fit in training for three disciplines in triathlon and what is your strongest and weakest? 

I think my strongest is pretty self-explanatory! I remember doing a short-form triathlon and when I did the 2.5km run bit of the race I flew through and ended up finishing first in my age category. The weakest is definitely my swimming. I used to swim a lot when I was at school but that was about 20 years ago and it’s been a while since I’ve done it properly, so going into the pool for the first time again was pretty daunting. 

I joined the local triathlon club and I was actually in the developmental lane until a few weeks before my triathlon. Even on the day I was a bit worried about swimming 300m non-stop but, being a competitor, it was a case of as soon as the gun went I had to keep on going. I targeted my swim for six minutes and I clocked 5:57. I’m still not the best at cycling but I also held my own and the running was natural – I can still produce 5:30 minute miles. 

Fitting training in? It is a lot more time consuming but I work next to an aquatic centre. I swim on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, tend to ride to work and do a couple of sessions, while I also do track sessions and long runs. It’s also about keeping an eye on training so you don’t overdo it. 

Alyson Dixon (Mark Shearman)

What’s your advice to someone who wants to run a marathon for the first time? 

I always say to people to look at the three Ps: practice, pacing and patience. Obviously, practice is your training and you’ve got to be fully prepared for 26 miles. I know I ran the full distance in training but I don’t recommend that for everyone. For most, 20 miles is enough. Regarding pacing, if you go off too fast in that first 10km then it will come back to bite you and the last 10km will be really painful. 

On patience, don’t expect that your fitness will come straight away during the marathon process. You’ve got to be looking at a 14-16-week block. If you’re at marathon peak fitness in the first week then by the time of the race you’re going to falling off the edge of a cliff. That includes being ill or injured. On the day of the race, if you hold something back for that last segment of the race then you’ll feel so much better towards the end. 

Also respect the distance but don’t fear it. 26 miles is obviously a very long way but you’ve got to give it respect and don’t be cocky like I was in my first ever marathon because I was in a world of pain at 16 miles! 

What was it like to break the 50km world record and did you break down different sections of the race? 

It was a surprise to break the world record and I didn’t actually know what it was going into the race. My aim was to become 50km world champion. I did know what the British record was and I had hopes of breaking that around a nine-lap course. 

My main mental barrier was going through that 42km mark as I’d never raced beyond the marathon. I had done a few training sessions at 30 miles but actually being competitive and doing six-minute miling over that distance was a little bit daunting. Once I got through that 42km mark I knew I had just one lap to go and it mentally became a lot easier. 

Coming round the last bend, my team manager shouted that I was going to break the world record. It meant that my last 5km was strong and to cross the line, not only becoming world champion but to break a 31-year-old world record was a special feeling. It did feel a bit of a smash and grab! 

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