Making his name

EUAN CRUMLEY SPEAKS TO JAKE WIGHTMAN ABOUT RAISING HIS PROFILE, WHILE FATHER AND COACH GEOFF IS ENJOYING SEEING HIS SON MATURE AS AN ATHLETE

- EUAN CRUMLEY

JAKE WIGHTMAN should need little introduction to the Emirates Arena crowd when he races in the 800m at the Müller Indoor Grand Prix. This is a man who has won Commonwealth bronze for Scotland and is the Scottish record-holder over 1500m, after all.

He has a European bronze medal to his name at the distance, too, finished a fantastic fifth and not far outside the medals in the world final in Doha, while he has started Olympic year in blistering fashion by breaking the British indoor record for 1000m when running 2:17.51 in Boston last month, his first indoor attempt at the event.

It is an athletics CV which grows in weight and substance with every passing year, particularly given the fact that Wightman continues to excel in a discipline which is bursting with British talent at the moment, yet he perhaps doesn’t always command the attention his achievements deserve.

In highlighting the 25-year-old’s record-breaking performance in the January 30 edition of AW, results editor Steve Smythe wrote “Wightman is a little underrated and undervalued as one of Britain’s most consistent runners”.

The athlete in question is not about to argue with that assertion but is already aware of how he can best go about changing that perception.

“I get a little bit fed up sometimes, especially when you race in the States,” says Wightman. “I think when I won the Fifth Avenue Mile in 2018 it was headlined ‘shock winner’ and that gets a bit tiresome after a while because I don’t know what you’re meant to do to change the context of how you’re mentioned in the field.

“That can be a bit annoying sometimes but unless you’re doing it on global stages then people don’t really see much of you and the more medals you have, the more respect you get, which is why I need to keep trying to do that and get people talking about me a bit more.