Reekie ready to push on after solving illness mystery
AFTER coming fourth at the Tokyo Olympics, Jemma Reekie’s indoor season was supposed to bring a reset with a few new tricks up her sleeve and a fresh turn of speed.
Instead the 800 metres marvel felt flat and wiped out, fearing she had caught Covid or was still feeling the after-effects of food poisoning in South Africa.
After failing to qualify for last month’s world indoor championships, the medics finally uncovered the truth.
“I don’t actually know when I got glandular fever,” she reveals. “It was a couple of weeks of not knowing what was quite right. And then getting some tests done to find out.
“So I actually didn’t stop running. And I was able to take a couple of easier weeks, just doing runs and no intense workouts. But I’ve not missed too much actual running and feel like I’ve come back well from it.”
Currently training in Switzerland, Reekie has her eye on a potential hat-trick of medals in July and August at the world and European Championships, and the Commonwealth Games. But she will open her summer with a duel over 1500m with training partner Laura Muir at the Muller Diamond League in Birmingham on May 21.
“I’ve started gym work,” she says. “I’d never lifted weights before, other than on circuits and stuff like that. I’m really focusing on that speed work, adding more in. So hopefully we’ll see the benefit come this summer.”
But the competition has heated up. Olympic champion Athing Mu, five years her junior, will only improve. English rival Keely Hodgkinson captured Reekie’s British indoor 800m record after wrestling away Kelly Holmes’ outdoor mark to earn her silver in Tokyo.
The Scot looked broken after that race when a medal seemed hers, but Hodgkinson deserves praise, Reekie says, with the result fuel for her own fire.
“To come fourth at the Olympics, it was hard,” she says. “But I think I move on from things quite well, and I was quite excited quite quickly after. ‘Okay, I’ve come fourth but what can I do now to do better?’
“I’ve looked at the positive side of it, and it changed a few things in my training. So now I’m like, okay maybe it’s a good thing that’s happened and maybe it’s going to be the best thing that’s happened in the long run to push me forward in the 800.”
Muir will keep nudging her in the right direction. Absent from indoors, the UK’s other track silver medallist is working her way back from injury at their chalet in St. Moritz. The signs are positive, Reekie confirms.
“Laura is in good shape. And I think she’s way further ahead than what she hoped to be. So hopefully she’ll be good as well.” The Muller Birmingham Diamond League takes place on Saturday 21 May and will see the world’s best in action at the newly renovated Alexander Stadium. Get your tickets at www. britishathletics.org.uk