Following a steady upward curve of improvement is paying off for the Commonwealth and European medallist. It’s an approach he would recommend and hopes will bear fruit at a global championships

Jake Wightman insists he won’t really be in a position to give out advice to younger athletes until he has a global medal to show for what has already been a lengthy career – despite the Scot still being in his mid-20s.

However, when asked about what he would say to emerging middle distance talents such as Daniel Rowden and the teenage Max Burgin, his words do have a particularly wise ring to them.

Wightman has enjoyed a fruitful 2020. He was recently voted British Male Athlete of the Year by AW readers after a 1500m performance – his only one this season – in Monaco which saw him climb to No.2 all-time in the British rankings with a run of 3:29.47.

His 800m showing wasn’t too shabby, either. There was a silver medal at the British Championships behind Rowden in early September before, just four days later, he lowered his PB for the distance to 1:44.18 – one of a crop of British men to have gone under 1:45 this summer.

Wightman is an athlete who tends to make steady improvements, rather than great leaps forward, and that’s just the way the Commonwealth and European medallist likes it.

It’s an approach he would recommend and is in fact relevant to any aspiring athlete.

“I’ve been pretty fortunate in that my progression has been steady – year on year I’ve had little improvements,” he says. “My advice would be don’t expect to take massive steps every single year – just be content with little improvements or even holding what you’ve done the previous year.

“It’s never ever a smooth ride. You’re going to have bad years at some point but usually you’ll follow that up with something good.

“Also, with someone like Max  – he’s so young that he might not be running at his best for another 10 years or so, so why rush that development?

“If you can build it slowly, get better every year, learn how to race, learn how to run against seniors and then you’ll be a much better athlete for it.”

Wightman adds: “But I don’t know if I’ve done enough in the sport yet to give that sort of advice. I think I need to pick up a global medal to be able to say that because, at the moment, they [Burgin and the 23-year-old Rowden] are probably on better trajectories than I was at that age so we’ll see what happens in five years’ time.”

Wightman does speak from experience, however. The 26-year-old has come up through every age group during his time in the sport thus far and urges youngsters to remember that there is no uniformity as to how quickly someone will develop.

He also points out that, not so long ago, neither he nor fellow 1500m Doha world championships finalist Neil Gourley would necessarily have been tipped for the top.

“When I go back to U15/U17 level and I was racing Neil Gourley up in Scotland, we were finishing in the middle of the field in races,” says Wightman, who is coached by his father Geoff. “You never would have thought that we’d have been the kids to go on and make senior teams now so you can’t over-analyse, especially when you’re really young, about the rate of progression you could have.

“If you were to try and pinpoint potential Olympic medallists for a field of 16-year-olds…you don’t know so it’s for anyone at that age to keep the faith because everyone changes at different rates and grows and develops in their own time.”

It will be fascinating to see how the likes of AW Junior Male Athlete of the Year and British U20 record-holder Burgin progress. Rowden also impressed many with his gold medal in Manchester and they are just two names from a crop of  high-class homegrown middle distance talent which will already have athletics fans licking their lips at the prospect of the men’s and women’s 800m and 1500m races at next year’s national championships, which also double as the Olympic trials.

Wightman, whose energies will be focused on the 1500m, believes it may never have been harder to make a national team than in 2021.

“You’re always going to look back at the 80s and think everything was so much stronger then,” he continues. “We had a few guys at the top who were doing ridiculous things but I think, in terms of general depth and making teams, it’s so much harder now.

“I’m guessing that is just coming from athletes seeing people they’ve grown up with, people they’ve raced pretty regularly, doing these things and it’s a case of ‘if they can do it then why can’t I?’.

“For every event, I feel like when someone comes out and runs really quickly or has a good performance, you’ll see in the next month that they will be so many others who follow it. That’s why I wouldn’t be surprised if, over the next couple of years, there are a few guys who go under 3:30 for 1500m because if I’ve done it then I know there are good athletes out there in the UK that will be able to give it a go as well.

“If you’re strong enough to get out of the war zone that will be the British trials then you’re going to do well when it comes to the actual big champs.

“In every middle-distance event – men and women – you can pin each as potentially being the race of the British champs because there are just so many people running that well. For people watching it is going to be exciting but it will be nervewracking as hell for the rest of us!”