Jake Wightman: ‘Not being able to race makes you feel useless’
Britain’s former 1500m world champion is happy to be running and feeling pain after a frustrating 2023
While the fastest athletes on the planet were deep in training for last summer’s world championships in Budapest, Jake Wightman, then the reigning 1500m champion, was undertaking an exercise in humility. It began, of all places, at his local bike shop.
“They must have been licking their lips when I walked in, because I told them I don’t know anything about bikes, but I wanted one that was all right,” he says, chuckling at the memory. “I bought all the gear and went out.”