Jake Wightman claims his decision to race through the challenges of coronavirus have given his chances of landing an Olympic medal a huge shot in the arm.
The 26-year-old rounds off his impressive season over 800 metres at tonight’s (Tuesday) Continental Tour leg in Zagreb.
The Scot heads the European rankings following his victory in 1:44.18 in Ostrava seven days ago.
And despite the hassle of hopping from country to country amid a pandemic, carrying on rather than opting out has been the right move, he insists, with Tokyo in 2021 in mind.
He said: “There are different reasons why people have sat out. But for me, you still want to be racing as much as possible because a year is a long time without being on a track and experiencing all those feelings and situations. You do lose race sharpness and it takes a while to get back.
“I admire people like Neil Gourley who admitted he wasn’t quite ready but still came out and raced. I think it will benefit him and I’m hoping all this benefits me. It might have been a disrupted year but if I have a better set-up going into 2021, who knows much more I can deliver?”
Wightman gets a shot at revenge in the Croatian capital with Dan Rowden, who edged him out for the UK title in Manchester earlier this month, joining fellow Brits Elliot Giles and Max Burgin in the field.
“I didn’t run badly, I just didn’t run the way I should have done against Dan,” Wightman said. “I didn’t break him at all. But it shows how well Dan is running. I don’t feel he’s had enough respect. People didn’t pay enough attention to how he ran in Gothenburg last month. He ran 1:44 two years ago. He just had a year out and people forgot about him.”
Elsewhere in Zagreb, Kirsty Law takes on double Olympic champion and home favourite Sandra Perkovic in the discus.
Meanwhile Jemma Reekie will be given the green light to smash her lifetime best over 800 metres at this evening’s Gala dei Castelli meeting in Bellinzona.
The 22-year-old has the chance to make it six wins out of seven over the distance in 2020 at the Swiss event, which will be held in front of 1000 spectators.
And even though the Scot already heads the world rankings indoors and out, her coach Andy Young believes her top time of 1:57.91 could come under threat.
He said: “I definitely think there’s more to come over 800. She’s not had that really fast race with good conditions yet that’s going to pull her below 1:57 and allow her to take it on.
“Bellinzona can be windy but she is in a good place now so if it all falls the right way, this could be the big improvement. But the most important thing is that she keeps winning."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here