by Stuart Weir
Tokyo Preview #5, Hannah Brier runs the 400 meters
For most athletes, the dates of the World Championship had been highlighted in their calendars months ago. Hannah Brier, a Welsh 400m runner, hardly gave Tokyo a second thought. In fact, she and her partner booked a vacation in mid-September. At the British Championship, she had run 52.29 and finished 7th, so she was well outside the top 2 Tokyo selection criteria.
She is coached by Rhys Williams, a former GB 400m hurdler, of whom she says: “Rhys is brilliant. I really, really enjoy having Rhys as a coach. He’s the most positive person I’ve ever met, regardless of how I’m feeling. It could be the worst day ever at work, and Rhys will go, ‘Right, come on, spikes on. Remember that in 10 years, you’ll look back on days like this and wish you could still do it. ’ I think that’s the sort of unique aspect that he brings into training, that he’s done it all before. He’s been an athlete. He knows exactly what it’s like to retire from the sport, and he’s gone, like you really need to enjoy the time that you’re in now. He’s a perfectionist. Everything is very detailed. Everything is in order. He’s really caring and he really wants the best for me in my performance”.
To start with, Hannah is not a full-time, sponsored athlete. She works Monday to Friday 9-5 as a local authority youth worker helping “young people who are not in education, employment or training and who might be dealing with a lot of personal issues, mental health or youth homelessness. Their confidence is often really low. And it’s my job to get them back on a positive path. So that could be getting them back into education, getting them back into some training, or it could just be finding them somewhere to live, or being just that sort of friendly person that they can come to and help solve any of the problems that they have”.
She trains either before work or after work. She admits that it is hard going: “I work a normal nine-to-five job, Monday to Friday, and then train six days a week, which is a little bit ridiculous”.
Yet she sees advantages to her lifestyle. “The two parts complement each other in terms of like a bad day on the track is not a bad day in reality when I’m dealing with some really, really big issues that some of the young people have and I’m thinking, ‘gosh, the time that I ran on the weekend is really not that bad compared to some of the things these young people are facing’. So it really helps. It puts everything into perspective, and I do really love it”.
She was in Japan at the GB preparation camp when I spoke to her: “I’m absolutely loving it. Like it’s quite surreal. A week ago I didn’t really know. I was going to be here. All of a sudden I’m in Japan, so it’s sort of surreal”.
She describes the process: “At British champs, I ran really well and made the final, but there were still quite a few girls in front of me in the rankings, so I didn’t really think I was going to get picked for the Worlds. I had heard a couple of whispers about being prepared in case I might be picked, so I quickly packed my spikes, lifters, and all my other gear. The holiday turned into a training camp. Then I had a phone call to confirm it. It’s moments like this to actually make it worth it – all those early morning sessions, all those evening sessions I really don’t want to do”.
Then she had to negotiate having three weeks off work: “I honestly could not ask for better employers. They have been just the most supportive people ever. They’ve honestly blown me away. They just said, ‘We’re not going to punish you for being selected for your country. This is absolutely brilliant. You’re inspiring all the young people you work with, and it’s something you have to grab both hands and go for. They’re incredibly supportive. And she had to tell the young people: “I had to phone all of the young people I work with, and said, ‘Look, I will be gone for three weeks. But there’s a good reason for it. I’m in Japan. And they were like, Wow, I can’t believe you do that. That’s absolutely amazing. Then they all proceeded to like Google, my name. And that was quite funny because they were like, ‘I can’t believe you kept this a secret from us. This is why you’re always so positive. And it was really, really lovely. I hope that some aspects of my athletic life will transfer to the lives of these young people.
Being here now, surrounded by all these amazing athletes and learning so much, has made everything completely and utterly worth it.
