Tokyo 2025 Preview, #16: Jake Wightman wants a good race in Tokyo
When Jake Wightman overtook Jacob Ingebrigtsen to win the world championship 1500 meters in Eugene 2022, it seemed that the world was his oyster. Little did he realise the two years of utter frustration were going to follow. Injury prevented him from defending his title in Budapest 2023. Light seemed to be emerging from a dark tunnel in 2024, when despite further injury problems, he gained selection for the Paris Olympics – albeit in the 800. Then in literally his last rep, in his last training session before Paris, injury struck again.
Speaking to a number of British track and field writers last week, he explained the frustrations of the last three years and what kept him going in the dark days: “A lot of it is just the sense of feeling like I’m not done. And I don’t look back on the years I’ve had with injuries and stuff like that like. If you isolate anyone of them, they’re pretty grim. But I had a whole spell of about nine years before that, where I didn’t actually get many injuries and that culminated in winning a world title. Some would say if that was the high point and it was going to followed by a couple low points, then you would take it. You could say 2022 was pretty brutal. My body did 3 champs. Therefore, I’m paying the price for that now. And then Paris was a lot tougher just because it was the Olympic Games with the bump in the road, I thought I was able to go for the 1500, having to go for the 800 and then to not even go for the 800 because of the injury at the last minute. That was a tough one and it’s been it’s been mentally hard for me. I didn’t struggle as much in those years when I was injured, as I have done this year because I feel as though this is when I have got back racing. It’s been a lot more stressful than I thought it was going to be just because I have had two years of not being able to do it properly, I don’t think I appreciated that. It is a big deal to be back racing fit and healthy and it comes with its own stresses away from being injured which I’ve had to like reassess and deal with and just realise that that I’m not going into Tokyo off the back of the 2022 season where I won World Champs. I’m going into this season and these champs off the back of having two years where I have had problems and injuries so it’s respecting that I’m being a bit kind to myself rather than criticising the athlete I am at the moment and how I am running – just because I feel like I’m allowed to probably not quite be firing as well as I maybe wanted to in summer races but my hope is that those bad runs I have maybe had or not quite as satisfying runs that I’ve had this season are all because everything’s going to go right for me in Tokyo. We’ll see”.
He explained further that he was in a very positive mindset with regard to Tokyo: “As we were leaving St. Moritz (Switzerland) a couple days ago, I was thinking that I didn’t get to this point the last couple years. So it’s a big milestone to have done all my training and actually get here. I’m not on a start line yet, but I feel like I’m in a very good position to be with five days to go. It’s nice. You forget what this environment is like. It’s the reward, in some ways, getting to this point and being around the team. I love being in a hotel where there’s all the other nations and you see people that you see on the circuit, or you haven’t maybe seen for a while. And it’s a bit more territorial. But that’s the kind of thing about Games and Championships that I probably really enjoy – that you have a lot more of a team element to it.
“It doesn’t feel like it’s been three years since I’ve been in this situation when I think about it. But then racing-wise, it does feel like a long time. I haven’t done rounds like this since 2022 so they’re the kind of bits that I’m most probably apprehensive – just getting back in the flow of getting through rounds. It’s just a different style of racing to what we do for the rest of the year. But I feel I’ve put myself in as good a position as I could have to get to this point, which is kind of reassuring in some ways. It’s like whatever happens now, that the work is done. I haven’t really had anything go wrong. I had a bit of sickness before trials, and then that was it. So I feel like I couldn’t have done more to get to this point in the shape I’m in”.
He admitted to being quite open minded about what he could achieve in Tokyo but was determined to be competitive: “The biggest realisation I’ve had this year is that I don’t believe that the very top end has moved on a lot, but everyone has moved on to get closer to that top end. My last race was Brussels, which was shocking from what I expected and what I got out of it. A lot of that was that there were a lot of bodies. It was busy, and I just struggled to deal with it. That’s probably where the lack of racing in the last few years comes in. That’s something I took for granted. I thought the race craft and the positioning would come back quicker than it has. I feel like I’m not quite as on autopilot as I was a few years ago.
“So the heats are a pretty big deal for me. I feel like, if I can go through my heat feeling comfortable, on autopilot, then that’s a big confidence booster for me. But I’m training as well as I ever had have done. Hopefully that means that I’m in my best shape. But whether that is going to be good enough to win, to medal, to make a final, I don’t know. I’m not going in with expectations. It’s going to be one race at a time. But if I step back and look at this, it’s a big deal to get back to this championship start line. And the main thing I want to do is enjoy it because I don’t think I would have enjoyed Budapest because of the pressure around going in as like a defending champ and having a bit more expectation. This year no one’s expecting anything from me; I’ve got my own expectations what I’d like to do. But I think I can go into this and have a free hit, which Eugene was a bit like that. Eugene, I went into it after I’d had a bad Tokyo Olympics, therefore I felt like no one looking at me, and I could go in and just try and see what I could do without anyone judging me beforehand. And I think that’s the same this time. So I’m hoping that means I get the most out of myself, and whatever will be will be”.
Without meaning to sound sentimental, if anyone deserves a good race in Tokyo, it is Jake.
