Stuart Weir tells the story of Jessie Knight, a British 400m hurdler who had to wait three years to deal with her demons.
Jessie Knight beats her demons.
Making the GB Olympic team for Tokyo in 400 hours was beyond a dream for Jessie Knight. The elementary school teacher who returned to running had progressed beyond her imagination. Then tragedy struck. The gun went, and off went Jessie. As she approached the first hurdle of her Olympic career, somehow, she lost her footing and crashed into the hurdle. Her Olympic dream was over.
See the incident at https://twitter.com/i/status/1421275498240385025
When Jessie lined up in the 400-h prelim three years later, it was hard not to think back three years. In fact, it was all Jessie could think about: “In my situation with what happened last time, I literally got over hurdle one and was like ‘right?’ which isn’t how you want to go into a race, and it’s silly as I’d done about 50 races since then”.
With all that in her mind, it was no surprise that she did not do herself justice, finishing fifth in the preliminaries at 55.39. Thank goodness for the repechage – never thought I would write that! Sorry, withdraw that without the repechage, Jessie would have been straight into the semi-final.
Jessie took positives from the situation, saying: “I feel like I can officially call myself an Olympian as it’s the first time I’ve finished a race. Now, I can actually push on and attack.
It was very fast on the track. It just felt like I was on top of them (the hurdles), but obviously, that’s another reason why it’s good to have another runout. I can get back and rest now.”
In the repechage, Jessie had a poor start and had a lot of running to do. She did it, cutting through the field to finish in 55.10, ahead of Gianna Woodruff of Panama by 0.005 seconds to finish second and earn a place in the semi-final. Afterward, the emotion poured out.
“I would have made the semi yesterday if it had been the standard qualification methods, but the repechage is such a good idea for excitement and entertainment. I suppose all the athletes who aren’t the Sydneys and Femkes are all just battling for the spot and all so evenly matched, and being in it in that home straight, you could hear it; it was fun!
“I feel like I am properly here. My mum didn’t even buy tickets for the repechage. In our eyes, I was a semi-finalist, at least based on what I could do, but this morning, it dawned on me I might not even make the semis. Then I thought, ‘No, no, no—I have to get into those semis. ‘
I’m really happy. I feel like I have had a really fun experience at the Olympics, which I felt like I had waited a long time for.”
Jessie, who is retiring at the end of this season to return to full-time teaching, added, “I have been emotional all morning as my career is coming to an end.” However, the semi-final pans out, and Jessie can hold her head high.
