Making up for lost time

ADELLE TRACEY MAY NOW BE HAVING TO BALANCE WORK WITH SPORT BUT, AFTER A DIFFICULT YEAR, SHE EXPLAINS TO EUAN CRUMLEY WHY SHE IS THRILLED TO HAVE STARTED 2020 WITH A BANG

- EUAN CRUMLEY

JEMMA REEKIE understandably stole all the headlines when she beat training partner Laura Muir over 800m at the Emirates Arena and broke Jenny Meadows’ British indoor record in the process at the beginning the month.

Just like the top two, however, the athlete finishing in third place had never run quicker over the distance indoors.

Adelle Tracey admits she had, first and foremost, been delighted simply to arrive on the start line of a race feeling happy and healthy. Her journey to Glasgow had not been straightforward – and not just because her bags had been lost on the way home to Twickenham from a training camp in Kenya 24 hours before she then jumped on another plane to Scotland.

It had been her first track appearance since August and, in truth, the 26-year-old admits she should have closed her 2019 season down much sooner than when she finished seventh at the British Championships in Birmingham.

Various injury and illness problems, coupled with a run of plain old bad luck, had resulted in a year to forget for Tracey as the progress of 2018 which had brought the British indoor title and a fourth place in the European Championships final was halted.

Fuelled by the enjoyment of what she does and aware that feeling was being lost, she eventually stopped and gave her body the chance to heal. The comeback began with a parkrun or two, while an 18th place finish at the British Athletics Cross Challenge at Liverpool in November confirmed growing endurance strength ahead of what was a positive training stint in Africa.

Opening 2020 with an indoor PB of 2:00.23 still came of something of a surprise, however.