FOR someone who still doesn’t know whether he is an 800m runner or not, Jake Wightman certainly looked authentic as he booked his place in tomorrow’s Commonwealth final. The 23-year-old, whose preferred distance tends to be 1500m, timed his run to perfection for a time of 1.47.43 and second place in the third and final heat over the shorter distance behind Jonathan Kitilit of Kenya.
You may recall that Wightman counts Seb Coe as a family friend and received a pep talk via text message in the wake of his Diamond League win at the Bislett Games in Oslo last year. Well, the IAAF President was back in touch yesterday, and Wightman would take any advice going as he aims to double up.
“I spoke to him [Coe] just then, after my race,” said Wightman, whose efforts to do both events were aided by the decision by organisers to drop a round of the 800m. “He met me and said well done. It’s funny because he’s popping up in the commentary for Australian TV, so he’s been mixing his roles up out here. I still get star struck by him and I would definitely take any advice I could get from him – but he might just leave me to it!
“I did a 600 metres time trial and it was way faster than I thought it would be. So me and my dad both thought: “Oh, there’s no way we can’t do the 800 now. Then the next day they pulled out the semis. So it was perfect timing.
“I’m here to get a medal,” he added “No matter what the event. The opportunity to have two is very exciting. However the 800 goes, I’ve got to keep my focus for the 1500.”
There was no such luck for Guy Learmonth, however, with the Borderer – who has been suffering from a recent foot problem – finishing in sixth place in the opening heat. Kyle Langford, recently called out by the Scot about the fact he receives national lottery funding, said he had a point to prove. “I have just missed too much training,” he said. “The strength work is what gets you through the last 200 but I was swimming. The swimmers for Scotland could probably swim faster in the water than I was running that last 100.”
“Me and Guy have had a few spats on social media,” said Langford. “He kept on calling me, Elliot [Giles] and our group out, so I replied, it was a bit of fun. I wanted him to be in my heat here, I was thinking ‘if I could pick anyone in my heat if would be Guy’.”
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