The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Twell believes she is back on road to success
Steph Twell claims being dropped from lottery funding has proved to be a lucky break by cutting her ties with the appraisers who controlled her career.
The European and Commonwealth medallist has had the route to her third Olympics clarified after UK Athletics confirmed it will restage its marathon trials for Tokyo in London next April.
It is one of two options on the table for the Scottish record-holder who is also in the frame for a track outing at the rearranged Games over 10,000 metres.
But the 30-year-old, now coaching herself, admits her switch up from middle-distance has finally given her the freedom to plot her own path in the sport rather than being weighed down by the need to chase races and times.
She said: “For athletes going on any sort of funding programme, it’s difficult to bloom or have time to grow in an event when you have a yearly appraisal.
“Growing up, I became very used to that. But there were times when maybe my development wasn’t being supported.
“Being a five-times British champion, for example, and not having the resources to bridge that gap to a world-class level.
“The biggest decision was going to the 10k and the marathon.
“It now gives me a lot more autonomy in my career. I’ve come from that background of being a cross-country runner in winter and then on to the track. I didn’t have too much of an off-season.
“Having an off-season around the marathons is the right stage for me. That is crucial for my long-term development.”
A horrific broken ankle in 2011, sustained during a cross-country outing, threatened to sideline Twell for good and killed off her dreams of competing at the London 2012 Olympics.
The road back was an emotional rollercoaster. But, Twell reveals, it forced her to come up with a new route to the top that eventually brought her Euro 5,000m bronze in 2016.
“I was a 1,500m runner. I really developed in that event until injury forced me to move up in distance.
“The event had moved on and I wanted to be part of a world-class stage.”
It’s a formula that’s working well, with Twell smashing Liz McColgan’s Scots marathon best when she ran two hours, 26 minutes and 40 seconds in October.
And becoming the UK’s queen of the road now feels like the next natural step.
She said: “Particularly being a British female, the likes of Paula Radcliffe being quite prominent in becoming a British record-holder, she was a natural role model in showing being a female running the marathon isn’t un-normal. It’s part of a pathway I could recognise.”