Great Britain’s Jake Wightman won gold in the 1500m at the World Athletics Championships on Tuesday night in Eugene, becoming the first Brit to do so since Steve Cram in 1983.
It was a remarkable win for the 28-year-old, who held off Norway’s Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen to top the podium.
It was made all the more special as Wightman’s father and coach, Geoff, was commentating on his victory, as he said: ‘Running is coming home. Wow. That is my son and he is the world champion.’
‘Dad can be a bit of a robot on the mic sometimes, some people say robot some say professional,’ Jake laughed. ‘I hope he broke that down today. It will be interesting to watch it back. My mum was in tears, at least someone was crying.’
He added: I’m 28 now, I don’t know how many more opportunities I will get to do this and I hope there is a lot more to come. I need to make the most of it. It’s important to hit the milestone like this, seven, eight-year-old me would never have believed.
‘There are so many people who have helped me get to this point. My dad has coached me since I was 14 or 15.
‘Every club coach from Edinburgh, Loughborough Uni, British Athletics have all played a part. The main thing is to now thank everyone who has helped me.’
Wightman had only finished 10th at the Tokyo Olympics and he is delighted to show what he can really do on the big stage in Oregon.
‘I didn’t want to leave this race like in Tokyo (2020 Olympics) where I didn’t give a true account of how I want to run and how I believe I could run,’ he said.
‘The important thing was to be at 200m strong. I thought “screw this, I’m going to give it a go”. If I ended up finishing fourth, I gave it a go. If I had finished second or third I’d given it a go to try and win. But I held on.
‘Whatever happens in the rest of my career, I’m a world champion.’
His dad, a stadium announcer, commentator and Jake’s coach, said: ‘I’ve been doing his school sports day since he was about 11 because my wife’s been his PE teacher. So we’ve just taken it to a slightly bigger stadia, slightly bigger crowds and slightly bigger medals.
‘I’ve been watching his races for all his life, since he started as a little kid in primary school and to come through and win a global title here of all places. The main thing is it made up for the Olympics.
‘You only get one shot in four years. So I’m, very proud, very proud. He’s putting in a lot of hard work. He’s very meticulous in the way he prepares.’
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