NIAMH CAN BE TOKYO WONDER
NIAMH EMERSON feels like Wonder Woman – which is fitting for one of our best heptathletes. She went into lockdown with her dreams of glory at the Tokyo Olympics dashed, but has come out of it firing on all cylinders.
“Yes, that’s it,” she says excitedly. “That’s exactly how I feel. I feel like I’m coming out of this in a much better shape.
“After I saw my gym coach for the first time in four months, he said to me, ‘You look so different, it’s like you’re a different athlete’.”
Emerson, 21, is the latest off a production line that spawned Olympic champs Denise Lewis and Jessica Ennis-hill and world champ Katarina Johnson-thompson.
The Derbyshire lass is chasing down her more-established Liverpudlian colleague who came of age with a magnificent gold medal at the 2019 Doha World Championships.
And despite the initial shock at the Games’ postponement the delay may have been a blessing.
She said: “My whole year was geared towards Tokyo. Every bit of my training, so it was a setback.
“But it has been a good thing for me, personally, because I was coming back from a serious injury.
“I damaged the patella tendon in my knee, so I had to do my rehab anyway. Without Tokyo, I’ve had more time. I’ve used it to work on the areas that needed improving.
“I pick up a lot of my points from jumping events. Coming from the background of an 800m runner, there’s a lot of technique and technical work that you just miss.
“So, I’ve gone back to basics. You are always learning, particularly with the heptathlon because there are so many events to master.”
To find out more about Niamh Emerson, head to her profile page on Redbull.com