by Stuart Weir
Innes FitzGerald, Double European champion
Innes FitzGerald completed the 3000m/5000m double at the European U20 Championships in Tampere, Finland, breaking a championship record that had stood for 32 years. We will come on to that in a moment. Innes is a rising star of European Athletics, she is a full-time University student – remember that there are no athletics scholarships in the UK – aged just 19 years and 4 months.
While I was not in Finland, I had the privilege of watching her six times this year in three countries, including seeing her reach the final of the European Indoors in Apeldoorn (8th) and running in the London and Stockholm (3rd in a 3k) Diamond Leagues. She was third in the GB Champs at 5k – a tantalizing position outside the top two with the automatic selection for Tokyo. But I would be amazed if she did not get the discretionary place for the World Championships.
She won the 5K on day 1 in Tampere in 15:09.04 and then produced another dominant display to win the 3000m title by more than 22 seconds three days later. Her winning time of 8:46.39 was a four-second improvement on the championship record that had been set by the legendary Gabby Szabo back in 1993. She also holds the European U20 5000m record of 14:39.56, set at the London Meet this year.
She said of her 5K win: “I feel pleased that I got that win. I just wanted to go out there and try to enjoy it and have fun. I had not competed in my age group at these championships before, so I had high expectations and enjoyed it. It was an honour to be a GB team captain because we have an incredible team”.
After her second race, she said, “It was a big ask to do the double, but I knew it was in me. I’m pleased to have come away with the win today, and getting the championship record was the icing on the cake. The crowd was amazing pushing me every lap. Championships like this are good for gaining experience. My season has been incredible so far and has exceeded all of my expectations.
Looking forward to the big things ahead. The World Championships are a big aim in September, so I am working on that”.
Innes is coached by Gavin Pavey, husband of Jo Pavey. Earlier this year, Gavin spoke to the UK athletics writers about Innes: “I don’t like bigging people up too much, but Innes is excellent. She’s doing her best with her running. I don’t need to say too much. We never know what’s going to happen in the future, but it looks promising. She’s doing things that other young athletes at this stage haven’t done, such as breaking the European indoor record. Like I said, I don’t like to big somebody up and talk them up, just let her do her running, and she can show you how good she is, but she certainly looks promising”.
In the winter, Innes was asked about her hopes for the year and answered in a very down-to-earth way: “I think going into the winter, I never really thought I’d have the opportunity to run in the European Indoors. I’m grateful to have been selected and to have the opportunity to attend Senior Champs. It’s exciting. I don’t think there’s too much pressure on me because, for instance, I’m young and it’s my first senior GB vest. So I want to go out there and enjoy it; hopefully, I’ll get into that final. That’s where I believe I belong. And, yeah, do my best I can, and hopefully compete for one of those medals. But just getting close, that’s, that’s the main thing”.
Mission accomplished, with much more to come.
That she ran with distinction in three successive weekends – GB Champs, probably doing enough to get to Tokyo, London Diamond League (European age-group record), and European U20s (2 gold medals) shows the potential this very grounded 19-year-old has.
