The 2022 champion came so close to winning another 1500m world title but he is only feeling grateful and positive about his Tokyo experience

Jake Wightman had literally just stepped off the podium in Tokyo and was packing his medal into its presentation box when he sat down with AW at the national stadium to reflect on an extraordinary few days. Seeing his name etched into the silver, what had happened was finally beginning to sink in.

Since becoming world 1500m champion in 2022, the sport had not been kind to the 31-year-old. Injury robbed him of the chance to defend that title in 2023 and, even more painfully, snatched away his Olympic dream at the very last minute last summer.

Even in February of this year, a torn meniscus needed surgery and then, as he prepared for the British trials, sickness ruled him out of competing in Birmingham and took selection for these world championships out of his control. He did get the nod, however, and in Tokyo he looked like he had never been away. As some big names fell by the wayside, Wightman progressed to the final with the minimum of fuss, looking stronger and more assured at every stage.

With the likes of his team-mate Josh Kerr and Dutchman Niels Laros expected to fight it out for gold, he was able to run with freedom and he so nearly landed another golden moment to cherish.
Just as in Eugene three years previously, with his father Geoff on the stadium microphone once again, Wightman put himself in the perfect position to strike with 200m to go after what had been a slow, cagey affair. As Kerr’s calf gave out and Laros faded, Wightman charged for gold, only to narrowly be outdone – the winning margin was just 0.02 – by the searing finishing kick of Portugal’s Isaac Nader.

This, however, was a silver medal won rather than a gold medal being lost. That Wightman was there at all was an achievement in itself. After missing out on the Olympics, he had torn up his life, moving with fiancee Georgie Hartigan from their beloved London to Manchester, and ending his working relationship with his father Geoff, who had been his only coach up until that point. He now works with his future father-in-law John and, with a lot still to process, he talked through what has been a year of contrasts.

How did this medal moment compare to Eugene in 2022?
The Portuguese national anthem doesn't resonate with me quite the same as the British one would, for some reason! But it's pretty cool. When you're looking at the flags it makes you realise that it is a world champs and then, when the medal says your name on it, it's pretty cool. Not so long ago, I didn't have one of these.

Do you have time off and holidays planned?
I'm going to visit my brother in Brooklyn and then we'll go to a few weddings, including Jemma Reekie’s. And then we'll go to Dubai with another couple, which will be really nice. It's a weird one because, physically, you almost don't need that much of a break. We sit down in hotel rooms, just chilling for a lot of the time.

I've spent all my time on this trip pretty much just lying on my bed, so you almost don't want a beach holiday. You want something that's got activities that you can enjoy doing. But a lot of it's just switching off from athlete mode and being a normal person for a bit, which I enjoy.

How has John been work to with and what is your new set-up like?
He's been great. He was involved with my dad before, which is why that's happened. He gets help from [former UK Athletics head of endurance] Steve Vernon as well – so he's a good sounding board for John to speak to.

Alex O'Gorman is not only my physio, but my sprint coach and Andy Kay’s still my strength and conditioning coach, too. It’s a really good team and Georgie is my voice. They all have regular catch-ups and she'll speak about how she thinks I'm feeling or what my grumbles have been rather than me having to voice it myself.

How important has Georgie been in all of this? What has her role been?
She probably knows as well as anybody how I train so she's been really good. I probably struggled with my dad a little bit sometimes in that I wasn't that vocal with how I felt and he was probably the same and there was frustration. Sometimes, because I hadn't said anything, those frustrations would build up.

I'm at the age and point in my career where I know what I need and I can have a bit more input, and it's accepted a bit more, whereas my dad had his plan that he believed we needed. Sometimes we'd fall out over that, just because he was a lot less likely to budge. A lot of that is his personality and a lot of that is because he is my dad and he knows what got me to that point in the past. But that wasn't working because I was getting hurt so we needed to have a change and it has been for the best.

It got to the point where he probably was afraid of saying stuff because it would wind me up and it's a fine line to tread, especially when it's not going well. You're more likely to then have another argument or disagreement because you're a bit more on edge and a bit more stressed about things so it was just nice to have a clean slate.

How much does it mean to have gone some way to fixing your relationship with running?
It was still strained going into these champs. I really hadn't enjoyed my racing for the majority of this year and I hadn’t taken much satisfaction from the races I’d had.

Not going to the UK trials really rattled me, because that was another thing I missed, and it potentially took the selection out of my hands again. I really struggled with that. I had to remind myself all year, when I knew that this was on the radar, not to just see a win as the only thing that I'd get validation from. Even when I initially crossed that line in the final, I was like: ‘Ah, I didn't win it’, that was my initial thought, and then it's like: ‘No, I haven't lost here. I've won because I've gained a silver medal, and I didn't lose that race – somebody else was better than me'.

I honestly don't think I could have run it any better. Niels Laros was probably the favourite for the race and he didn't even get a medal so I could have easily had that race and got nothing from it.

What kept you coming back? You've had so many reasons just to call it a day. It would have been understandable if you had.
I still believed that I had this in me. I'd have stopped if I believed that I wasn't still going to be good enough – but I never thought that. Every time I was building up towards these seasons that didn't happen, I was training well enough to know: ‘Actually, I can still be competitive here’. I couldn't just keep feeling like that and then not making start lines, so this year was big for that.

I needed to believe I could do it and actually go and do it, because otherwise that would have been three years in a row where I hadn’t fulfilled what I wanted to and I don't want to just be running below my potential and not performing where I want to be, because that's just not why I do it. I do it to get the best out of myself and perform at a certain standard and I'm grateful for the people that have been able to get me back to that point.

What has helped you on the mental side of things? It must be difficult, and totally natural, to still have a lot of concerns in your mind when you’ve had these injuries.
I honestly still have to do some work on it. There have been so many little things that have popped up this season that have rattled me more than they ever would, and a lot of it is because I just have so much trauma from what's happened before and haven’t even realised.

Without going too deep about it, I've made such big changes in my life over the past year that I haven't really sat down and fully comprehended. Manchester is my home now, and I've barely been there. I have friends there, but it's not the life I've had these last few years, so I need to work hard to make sure that that feels like home.

Alex, my physio and my sprint coach, but also a good mate, has now moved down to London, and he was one of the big reasons I moved up to Manchester, so I've got to sort that out. He got a great job opportunity but I've had to deal with that as well. He wasn’t the sole reason – I moved up because there's better medical support just generally – but that is something that's quite a big loss for me.

But over the next couple months I'm going to try and make Manchester my home, rather than just the place we've moved to that has all our stuff in a house. The network I had in London was very, very strong and we moved ourselves away very suddenly. I didn't really realise how big a deal that would be.

It’s important to note there have been quite a few big life changes for you to deal with.
The biggest life things I've ever had. I’ve had quite a smooth existence up until those points. I'd never had a different coach and, post uni, I had lived in the same place for all that time, so it's just been a lot to deal with at the same time.

And there’s plenty to look forward to next year, with a home Commonwealth Games and European Championships
This will probably be my last Commonwealth Games so it’s a nice place for that to end for me because my first was in Glasgow in 2014. They are both really, really good opportunities and it would be great to perform as well as possible in both.

For the Europeans, the reality is that there aren’t going to be that many of the big names missing. Europe is so strong at the minute so that will be a real test. This [world championships] just gives me hope that I’ve got a few more years left in this sport because I wasn’t sure how much longer I was going to keep going. I’m going to be trying to replicate this as much as possible now.