Jessie Knight's teacher training
Jessie Knight’s strong relationship with her coach Marina Armstrong is a key part of her success but she smiles as she recalls how her return to athletics didn’t get off to the smoothest start.
"I woke up one Sunday morning and thought ‘I’m going back to athletics’ and I went to see her (Armstrong) on the Tuesday," explains the British champion, who had taken time away from the sport to concentrate on her teaching career.
"It all happened really quickly and she was really annoyed that I hadn’t come in trainers. I had shown up in flip flops and I had just gone to talk about going back to athletics and she was going to throw me in back running!"
Luckily for the sport, that point marked the second chapter in Knight’s athletics career and her decision to combine life as an elite hurdler and primary school teacher has proven to be a winning one.
"It really was a hard journey back," admits the 26-year-old, who teamed up with coach Armstrong after taking a break from the sport in 2018. "But, honestly, we have just clicked as an athlete-coach partnership and we get on on a really personal level, which I think helps. We talk about dogs and bags and all sorts!
"She is just a mastermind. Her training programme, I can ask her any question, 'why are we doing this?', and there is always such a reason behind it, it is really well thought out.
"I feel like I know her so well now that when I look at the training programme I know exactly why it is there and why we are doing it, what it is for. We have got an amazing training group. She is a dream coach and it is working really well."
View this post on Instagram
When Knight achieved her indoor breakthrough success last February – beating a top 400m field with a big PB of 51.57 at the Müller Indoor Grand Prix in Glasgow and then winning her first British title one week later – she was working full-time at Danetree Primary School in Epsom, Surrey.
Switching from the 400m flat to her 400m hurdles specialism outdoors with the added challenge of a coronavirus pandemic, Knight dropped down to three days a week at school and over the summer she improved her hurdles best to 55.27, set a British 300m hurdles record of 39.35, won another UK title and made her Diamond League debut.
The juggling act and hard work is clearly paying off and when we speak Knight has just finished a "really gruelling" training block.
"600s on Monday, 13 200s on Tuesday, six 300s last night with gym this morning," she smiles.
"It is really hard, but you remember that the hard winter is what makes the summer."
Lead photo by Getty Images for British Athletics
» See the January edition of AW magazine for more from an interview with Jessie Knight as part of our 'ones to watch in 2021' series
» For more on the latest athletics news, athletics events coverage and athletics updates, check out the AW homepage and our social media channels on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram
