Jemma Reekie: "We're all pushing each other to new heights"
Jemma Reekie is not short of incentives ahead of the Paris Olympics.
The 26-year-old, who finished an agonising fourth at the Tokyo Games three years ago, is targeting a podium place in the French capital.
She goes into the Olympics in the form of her life, having run a personal best of 1:55.61 in finishing second at the London Diamond League to Keely Hodgkinson, who broke her own British 800m record with 1:54.61.
Those times make the pair the two fastest women in the world over 800m as they prepare to embark on this Olympic campaign.
"I've been waiting for a personal best for a long time and we all – my team and I – knew it was in me and it’s just nice to do it at the right time and see everything coming together," says Reekie, who is coached by Jon Bigg and former Olympic and world 400m hurdles champion Sally Gunnell.
"I knew that it was definitely in me, but I'd actually had COVID and I had a bit of a rough week running up into London. I had a couple of good sessions the week prior to London so I thought: 'Okay, I'm going to run a solid race' but I wasn't sure it was going to be a PB.
"I came into London putting no pressure on myself and just saying: 'Let's see how we get on, okay, we've missed some training and we've had some time off. So we'll see how it is’. [That all meant] it was nice to be go out and do it."
On the prospects of Hodgkinson being labelled the favourite at the Games, Reekie adds: "I think Keely could come here and win and do incredibly well but it's not fair to put every bit of pressure onto her. Just let her go and do her thing. We'll be rooting for her and everyone in the team to do well."
The other member of the British women's 800m team in Paris is Phoebe Gill. The 17-year-old broke a 45-year-old European under-18 800m record in Belfast back in May, running 1:57.86 and making the top 10 on the UK all-time list. Gill then beat Reekie to become UK 800m champion in Manchester in June.
Although they are rivals on the track, Reekie is full of praise for the teenager.
"Actually, just come and enjoy it and don't put pressure on yourself," says Reekie when asked what advice she would pass on. "Just have fun with it and she's 17. She could go out there and do incredibly well, but also she'll gain so much experience from being here.
"I'm sure we'll all try and support and help Phoebe as well when she comes because we all know how tough it was and being in the first Olympics and, yeah, we just want everyone to do well. I want myself, Keely and Phoebe to come out and enjoy it. So I think everyone in the team will be supporting her and helping her with our advice from our first Games."
Reekie's first experience of an Olympics was the last edition in Tokyo, where she finished a narrow fourth and missed out on bronze by just nine hundredths of a second.
During the following indoor season, Reekie was diagnosed with glandular fever and that summer failed to make the final of the World Championships and the Commonwealth Games, while also finishing fifth at the European Championships.
She also, alongside Laura Muir, split from her long-time coach Andy Young, with Reekie moving to the south coast to work with Bigg and Gunnell.
Her performances steadily improved and she finished fifth over 800m at last year's World Championships in Budapest.
Then, at a home World Indoor Championships in Glasgow back in March, Reekie claimed 800m silver in front of a partisan Scottish crowd.
She now states that she is "a completely different athlete to three years ago."
"Oh, it's been a horrible time," Reekie says. "After Tokyo I had glandular fever, then made some changes and it's been really exciting in the past year. It's incredible how quickly we got to where I am now and it's just exciting. It was a rough couple of years, but I'm happy to be where I am and I think it'll make me a much stronger person in the long run.
"I feel like I've grown up a lot in that time and I'm just so much more confident in myself and everything and I think it comes with age and it also just comes with being happy in your environment. I'm really excited, enjoying it and having fun."
An Olympics in Paris also means that Reekie and here British team-mates will enjoy significant support, given the short travel distance between the two countries. She is hoping that extra noise from home fans could help make the difference.
"I've got a lot of family and friends heading out and, yeah, I know I'll have everyone at home as well," she says. "It'll be so lovely to have everyone there. I think it's so special to have my parents, brother, sister and fiancé out there. John [Reekie's fiancé] is only headed out for the final, so he's got some confidence!"
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