by Stuart Weir
Jemma Reekie is one of the nicest people on the circuit. I enjoy her Scottish accent, which, for me, requires some focus. This piece on Jemma is by Stuart Weir, and is his third piece on Doha. Stuart Weir has interviewed Jemma many times.
We hope that you will enjoy!
Jemma Reekie third in Doha
Jemma Reekie opened her outdoor season with third place in the Doha Diamond League. Her time, in a slow, tactical race in which the field ignored the pacemaker was 4:07.44. The race was won by Nelly Chepchirchir in 4:05.00. Reekie ran a clever race, keeping out of trouble to finish behind two Kenyans but ahead of seven other east Africans.
Reekie had previously run 2 indoor 800s in France but had decided against a competitive indoor season because of the lateness of the world championship, telling me that she did not think peaking for a European or World Indoors in February/March would help her to be at her best in mid-September.
Reekie had finished fourth in the 2021 Olympic 800, in a race in which six of the top 7 including her had run a PR. REekie was set to take the bronze medal until a late run by Raeven Rogers left Reekie 0.09 seconds out of the medals. In Paris last year she was the fastest semi-finalist not to make the final. Athletes are often judged just on the main championship of the year – which would make 2024 a failure – but Jemma is able to look at the big picture and take positives from her first full year working with new coach, John Bigg. 2024 was a year in which she had got a medal at the World Indoors and run a PR at the London Diamond League. Her Diamond League record was impressive, winning in Stockholm, second in Doha, London and Poland, 3rd at Pre and Lausanne, 4th in Zurich: “I think we had a lot of positives from 2024 and we learned a lot but it was still hard not achieving what I wanted to achieve. But it’s only been a year, working with John and we’ve got so much to look forward to. I’ve shown physically that I can do what we need to do and more. It’s just that I need that extra time.
“Paris was really hard. It was my second Olympics and the second Olympics I went to when a medal would have been a realistic goal. It was really hard walking away, not even making the final, so I think it was a really tricky one and it’s something that my whole team and myself have learned from but London was great. I’d not been was able to run a personal best for a long time and to get London done and get that personal best was a big confidence boost for me and John because we’ve been working together and we’re doing so much new training that it was like, ‘OK, this is working, we’re going the right direction’. And that was a big breakthrough from the past few years and a confirmation we’re doing the right thing. But also there’s still loads that we can work on”.
Jemma has normally being seen as just an 800 runner but her ambitions go beyond that.
“I think by the next Olympics I would still definitely be the 800 but I’ll be running more 1500s over the years coming up to that. I really do think it helps my 800 and maybe after the next Olympics I might be doing the fifteens as well, but I still think I have so much to give in the 800 and so much to improve on, that I’m definitely gonna focus on the 800 for the next Olympic cycle.
She admitted that she did not enjoy the 1500 training but saw it as useful, developing her stamina for the 800. “That’s what I’m going for just now, the 800 is what I’m enjoying, what I’m loving. I will tap into the 15, but definitely gonna focus on the 8 for now”. I once pointed out to her that Jess Judd had first represented Britain at 800 but was now running 10K, half marathons and was planning a full marathon. She gave my comment short shrift : “I’m not doing a marathon”.
Doha was a good first outing in 2025 with lots more to come.
