I’M SO PROUD DESPITE MISSING OUT ON MEDALS
ILOOK back on my World Championships and I’m really happy. Coming fourth and sixth in two major global finals, the 1,500 metres and 5,000m, is a pretty solid outing.
It was obviously gutting to just miss out on a medal in the 1,500m but, overall, I have to be pleased with how I performed.
I competed on the first night, in the 1,500m heats, and then on the last night in the 5,000m final, plus on another three days in between. I felt like I did more laps of that track than anyone else! THE ATMOSPHERE in the London Stadium was unlike anything I have ever experienced. When they called out my name on the start line the stadium erupted and then it just got louder and louder with every lap.
To experience being a British athlete at a home world champs was just amazing. When I was warming up on the track next to the stadium there were kids shouting my name. I feel very lucky to have experienced that. MY COACH Andy Young and I have looked back at a tape of the 1,500m final and I know I did pretty much everything I could to try to win a medal. Of course there were little bits that I would change, but I think I raced really well.
It was tough, particularly that last 10 metres. And I would absolutely have taken a bronze medal, even when I realised the gold was gone! But I am pretty excited to think I finished fourth, which is a big achievement.
The competition was tough and I was still in it, fighting for a medal, coming down the home straight. I gave it my all. I knew a lot of the girls were faster over 800m so I couldn’t allow the 1,500m to come down to a race over the final two laps. If I could try to hurt them with a fast first lap then I had a chance.
So I ran the first lap the way I wanted to do it. The second lap was slower, but I didn’t want to push the race the whole way on my own because you can become a bit of a sitting duck. MY RUN in the 1,500m final gave me a lot of confidence going into the heats of the 5,000m and I was feeling very positive. But I think a bit of inexperience showed — it was a race I didn’t run that well.
The last competitive 5,000m I ran outdoors was in 2013. And I was pretty much running by myself when I broke the British indoor 5,000m record in Glasgow earlier this year. I did learn a lot from that heat, though, and I was pleased with the way I performed in the final, too. I TRIED to get as much sleep as I could in between my races. I saw the physio regularly and had some ice baths. I also had to replenish my supplies of porridge pots because I couldn’t fit nearly two weeks’ worth in my bag!
I was absolutely on it with regards to hygiene too, as it was scary to see athletes struck down by illness. I used sanitising hand gels all the time and tried to avoid large groups of people, but would still go out for dinner with other members of the British team. I WAS thrilled to be asked to hand the flag over from London to Doha, who will host the 2019 World Championships. It meant that Mutaz Essa Barshim, the high jump world champion from Qatar, and I were the last people out on the track. It was a privilege to bring such a brilliant World Championships to a close.
I went on the 178m tunnel slide on the ArcelorMittal Orbit, the red twisty structure next to the stadium in the Olympic Park, on Monday, before heading home to Glasgow. It took about 45 seconds to get down. Great fun!
I’m a bit of an adrenaline junkie. I’ve dragged my coach on rollercoasters in California and to adventure parks in Andorra so going on the tunnel slide was my reward to myself after the world champs. When I arrived I was disappointed to find it had sold out for the day, but I bumped into the BBC’s athletics statistician Mark Butler — who had just been down himself — and he suggested I ask if they could fit me in. Luckily someone recognised me and arranged an extra slot. IT WAS great to see my good friend Eilidh Doyle get a silver medal in the 4x400m relay. Eilidh and I went to the same high school and I shared a room with her at my first senior championships, back in 2013 at the European Indoors in Gothenburg. I think she earned a medal then: I was studying various veterinary topics between rounds and Eilidh learned more than she bargained for about tortoises!