JAKE Wightman must be one of the best prepared athletes in world sport. Not only does the 23-year-old Scot, who will battle the best in the world over 1500m at the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham this week, possess the kind of forensic, analytical mind that once made him perfect for a job archiving the entire world’s racing history on athletics website Power of 10, his coach and dad Geoff has to rhyme all this stuff off by heart when it comes to his day job of passing names and times onto the paying public at large track meets like this weekend’s.
Anyway, father and son have crunched the numbers and concluded that reaching and then being competitive in what is likely to be a tactical final of the 1500m at the World Indoors - an event he enters alongside his countryman Chris O’Hare - is an achievable goal. So is returning from the Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast this April with a medal to show for his efforts in both the 800m and 1500m.
“My dad is obsessed with stats and always knows how everybody is running,” says Jake. “I trust him completely. All the entries have started to come in for the Commonwealth Games and you can see where the main contenders are coming from. My Dad is all over it – although I don’t think it matters until you get there.
“But if I keep on the trajectory I have done this winter, I will be in good shape for the Commies, hopefully in both 800 and 1500, where I can first of all make the finals, then have a shot at a medal. I am going there to compete as well as I can.
“As for this week, hopefully a final is achievable, although I’ll still only have had three proper 1500s or miles indoors. The heats will be a challenge. But I should be able to get through them. Most global finals are very tactical so if I can make it there I will put my mark on the race and see what I can do. I always run to win so I will give it a go.”
While Wightman Jnr was moving off to Birmingham with a spring in his step, another athlete who benefits from Wightman Snr’s talents, Scotland’s Steph Twell who has recently switched to work with the former marathon runner as coach, was simply happy to be running again after an untimely bout of the flu which robbed her of the chance to compete at the World Indoors.
“I’ve got to take that race and move on from it, it is where I am at after five days off,” said Twell. “I wasn’t in control of my body, it is still where my body is after illness. I just need to tap into that work that I have done for the Commonwealths.”
One Scot who does have a spring in his step is Grant Plenderleith, the 27-year-old former Stenhousemuir player and 400m runner who finds himself vying for a run in the 4x400m relay at the World Championships just a few short months since he was considering returning to junior football.
“It is great to be back on a global stage,” Plenderleith said after recording his second personal best over 400m in successive weeks at Sunday’s Muller Glasgow Grand Prix. “Hopefully I have done enough now to secure an actual run, rather than just being in the team. That was the target.
“This time last week I couldn’t have dreamed of the week I have just had,” Plenderleith added. “It has come right out of the blue. Nothing has really sunk in, it hasn’t really hit me yet.
“Competing at the worlds wasn’t on my radar at all until Monday, when I got the call. So I have to say thankyou to my work for letting me have next weekend off.
“And sorry for missing my fiancee’s gran’s 80th. I am sure I have done them proud but I will still get a slap when I come home for missing it. I just need to rest, recover and get ready for next weekend.”
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