byStuart WeirThis is an interesting piece.
Stuart Weir did this piece, his 3rd this week, on Laura Weightman and Jake Wightman. Both British middle distance runners look at the 3 championships in 2021 (World Champs, Commonwealth Games and European Champs).
The championships seem to pull the best out of some athletes, and we will have to wait and see….
Laura Weightman, photo by Getty Images / British Athletics
Jake Wightman, photo by Getty Images / British Athletics
2022 Schedule
With the postponement of the 2020 Olympics, the knock-on effects make 2022 a busy year for British athletes, with three championships in 37 days. While this is no issue for sprinters, runners in longer events may have to prioritize the following three events:
World Championships 15-24 July
Commonwealth Games 28 July until 8 August
European Championships 15-21 August 2022
Already two British middle-distance athletes have declared their intention to target all three. The decision, of how to prioritize the events, is not straight forward. While the World Championships are the pinnacle, the other two may provide easier medal opportunities.
Laura Weightman, photo by Getty Images / British Athletics
Laura Weightman, who has previously collected two European and two Commonwealth medals, declared her interest: “2022 is going to be a really interesting year with a World Champs in America and then coming back for the Commonwealths and the Europeans. They’re definitely all championships I want to do. As an athlete you thrive on the competition at a championship. An important thing will be to look at the calendar and schedule of the championships to see how it would work but I would definitely like to do a mix of 1500m and 5000m across the championships. With Birmingham being a home championship, it’s definitely one you don’t want to miss. So, I will definitely be looking at the schedule and hoping I can go to all three championships.
We’ll be able to look at mixing. With the 5000m, it’ll all depend on the travel and the days where the events lie in the different championships. But you see it on the circuit. In 2019 I raced the 3000m at Pre and 10 days later I was in Monaco and ran the mile. You can do it with careful planning around your training. I think it is very doable, to do those championships. You need intentionally to pick and choose the events around them to get the best out of yourself and give yourself the best opportunity. As an athlete, you don’t want to turn down championships although you might not be able to run all three in the 5000m or all of the 1500m. It all depends which ones you to target”.
Jake Wightman, photo by Getty Images / British Athletics
Jake Wightman who was 5th in the 1500m at the 2019 World Championships, took bronze at 1500m at both Commonwealth and Europeans in 2018. Wightman said: “That’s the plan, to be in all three. The fact I can hopefully try and mix both the 800m and 1500m at those means that it will be a bit more broken up for me. I wouldn’t want to go and do 1500m at each, so I think I would try and mix it up. I’m not sure what I would do at which, yet. It’s an opportunity for medals”.
