KIM Renicks heads to the European Championships in Tel Aviv this week with a point to prove. The 30-year-old memorably won Scotland’s first gold medal at Glasgow 2014 but since then, she has lost her support from British Judo meaning so she has to fund her training and competition programme herself.
And the Glaswegian admits that winning her first European medal when she fights in the -48kg category on Thursday would be the perfect riposte to the doubters.
“I want to win a medal at the Europeans and if I do, I think it will feel that bit more special because I’d know that I’ve done it without the help of GB, although I’ve still had the help of a lot of other people,” she said.
“I really, really want the medal but it’s about taking it fight by fight on the day. I’ll treat every fight like a first round, I’ve just got to win it and not think any further forward than that.”
Renicks’ funding situation has led to a number of changes in her set-up over the past year. A serious shoulder injury a couple of years ago ruined her chances of reaching the Rio Olympics and as she recovered from surgery, the Commonwealth champion seriously considered her future in the sport.
But she decided she wasn’t quite ready to call it quits and so took the step of moving to Camberley in England to make one last push. It is a move that has paid dividends quite spectacularly, with Renicks feeling as good as she ever has and her world ranking shooting up from 88, where she fell to when she was out injured, to inside the top 30.
A number of good performances this year against some of the world’s best, including a narrow defeat to the 2012 Olympic champion, have worked wonders for her confidence.
“It is encouraging to be getting that close to people like the Olympic champion and on that same day, I beat someone who’s in the top 10 in the world and who I’d lost to a few times so it was great that I managed to keep my composure and beat her this time around,” Renicks said.
“That shows me that I’m getting better. I’ve got more confidence now and I’m starting to feel similar to how I felt going into the Commonwealth Games in 2014. And fitness-wise, I’ve been feeling really good and I’ve not had any niggles in my shoulders which has been really positive.”
This week’s European Championships is doubly important as it marks the start of the Olympic qualifying period for the Tokyo 2020 Games.
A slight change in the qualification rules means the world’s top 22 will make it to Tokyo rather than just 16 as it was in Rio and Renicks is making her Olympic debut, after missing out in 2016, is her top priority over the coming two years.
“When Olympic qualifying starts, everyone comes out the woodwork and the competitions become much tougher,” she said. “But since I came back from my shoulder injury, I’ve been feeling really good and I’m aiming to get into the world’s top 25 next.
“With each month, my fighting is getting better and I’m feeling a lot stronger - the only thing has been small mistakes or losing my concentration in fights but I’m feeling really positive going into the qualifying period.”
Renicks admits that having to self-fund makes life a lot more difficult than if she were backed by British Judo. But the support of her sister Louise, who is a fellow Commonwealth Games gold medallist and is now Renicks’ coach, as well as financial back-up courtesy of a sponsorship deal with National Tyres, enables Renicks to follow something close to a full-time schedule.
But as tough as it is supporting herself, she doesn’t regret for a second giving things one last push.
“My options were to retire or to move to England and it was a hard choice but I decided to go for it in England and give it my all,” she said.
“It’s been great that it’s all worked out - I’m 30 but I’m still not past it. I think when you get a little bit older, you learn from your mistakes whereas when you’re younger, your body can put up with pretty much anything. But I’m smarter now.
“There’s three of us from Camberley who aren’t funded but have qualified for the Europeans so that shows how good the training is.
“And the support I’ve had from National Tyres has been great because it’s taken a lot of stress off me. It’s hard, but I'll keep going.”
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