Beth defies her critics... and proves that age is no barrier
BETH POTTER saw the numbers crunched and her technique torn to shreds, but she would not allow her resolve to be broken.
Opting to switch sports mid-career had the Scot playing catch-up. Doing a crash course, being placed on a fast track, she always knew it would require time and energy to climb upwards and then engage top gear.
Yet barely five years after opting for a change of pace in the wake of coming 34th in the Olympic 10,000 metres final in Rio, the 30-year-old sits third in the World Triathlon Series standings and is a legitimate contender to swim, cycle and run her way to Commonwealth Games gold tomorrow.
To reach this lofty position, Potter had to overcome several obstacles. In a swipe at British Triathlon’s performance system, which she alleges was stacked in favour of her rivals, she reckons the governing body were guilty of ageism in refusing to believe she could plot a trajectory that would see her come good.
‘It stung when I was told I was too old,’ she revealed. ‘I was too this and too that. I wasn’t good enough to make front pack and I wasn’t good enough on a bike because I couldn’t corner. It just really got under my skin. That just really annoyed me.
‘I heard: “Oh, your running is going to get slower”. I just found they were not giving me anything positive. And every year I’ve gone into the winter, off a good set of results at the end of the year, and just been like: “Right, now I’ve got a point to prove”. But I just wanted to do it for me. I don’t feel like I have to do it for anyone else. But it does feel quite nice, doing that at the same time.’
Irrefutable evidence can be offered by recent results. Second in this month’s WTS leg in Hamburg. Third in the one before in Montreal. A victory apiece for her two chief challengers in Birmingham, Bermuda’s Olympic champion Flora Duffy and Tokyo silver medallist Georgia Taylor-Brown of England.
Finally put on Lottery funding last winter, Potter felt she was not given a fair shake at earning a berth at the preceding summer’s Tokyo Games when the British teams were picked early. Still rising up the standings, the gate was bolted too soon. The one for Paris in 2024 is fully ajar. Such is her commitment to beating the cut that she passed up on an open goal — a return to the track for Tokyo — in favour of underlining her full commitment to the cause.
A month in Japan, she claimed, would have been four weeks lost in raising her game in triathlon.
Potter added: ‘I’m becoming more of an all-round athlete by having more experiences under my belt or being able to kind of race whatever is thrown at me. I was always told: “You’re not powerful enough or good enough on the bike”. But I’m becoming more of a complete athlete that has a Plan A to Z and not just a Plan A to C.’
On long Saturday rides with her group around the dales of Yorkshire, she has acquired more tricks of this trade and ways to navigate the open road. She was a precocious swimmer in her youth, then a formidable runner. Life on two wheels has been the complex part of this riddle. ‘I had to learn as an adult. Just reading how a race was going to go, when people are going to attack, when it is slowing up. I feel like, in races now, I am constantly looking around to be aware of people. And I didn’t have that as much before. Part of it was because I didn’t grow up with cycling like that. So it was hard, but I’ve just had to just throw everything at it this year. And it’s working.’ Will it deliver a medal in the nature reserve of Sutton Park where Duffy will defend her title from Gold Coast in 2018 and Taylor-Brown will carry local support? A few months ago, the Scot was stressing about taking her best shot. Curiously, she feels the pressure has been lifted. Just another big race in a summer of huge challenges. ‘I feel like no one’s looking at me expecting me to win — they’re looking at Georgia and Flora. And I think they’re going to be looking at each other. I just want to enjoy it. And I feel no pressure because I did everything I possibly could this winter. I left no stone unturned. So if it’s not good enough on the day, it’s not good enough. I don’t feel like the pressure is there.’