Jenny's Journey

THERE’S NO DOUBTING NOW THAT MULTI GLOBAL MEDALLIST EY JENNY SIMPSON BELONGS AT THE TOP TABLE WHEN IT COMES TO THE 1500m

- Stuart Weir

JENNY SIMPSON’S admission is very honest. “You have to be a very intelligent racer when you run the 1500m. I did not know if I had what it took.” Thankfully for the American, her coach

Heather Burroughs persuaded her that she did – and a world gold over the distance in 2011, not to mention silver medals in 2013 and London this summer, as well as the small matter of an Olympic bronze in Rio, underline rather spectacularly just how accurate that judgement was.

Simpson’s career has been long and illustrious and is one in which she has shown herself to be competitive on the world stage from 800m to 5000m and on the track, road and cross country. She ran in the 3000m steeplechase in Beijing 2008, finishing ninth but setting an American record. In 2009 she was fifth in the event in the Berlin World Championships, taking almost 10 seconds off her own US record (at the time of writing, there is talk of this being upgraded to bronze). It proved to be a fateful year.

Simpson was primarily a steeplechaser but it was her run of 3:59.90 in the 1500m at the 2009 Prefontaine Classic, making her at that time the third-fastest female 1500m runner in US track and field history, which brought her to a crossroads. 3000m or 1500m?

“It was a very difficult decision but it was something about which my coach was very confident. She had to do a bit of talking me into it,” Simpson says. “I knew I had the physical ability to excel at the event because I had run 3:59 before when I wasn’t even specialising in it. But you have to be a very intelligent racer when you run the 1500m. I did not know if I had what it took.