World Athletics Championships: the British medalist Jake Wightman says he saved a father by dismissing him as a coach | Athletics news

Jake Wightman, who won the 1500m silver medal at the world athletics championships, talks about his fractured relationship with the father and former coach Geoff as well as a few dark years due to an injury

Jake Wightman says that disicing his father as a coach was the best thing after the Briton storm a 1500m silver medal at the world athletics championships.

Wightman was beaten by two hundredths of a second by the Portuguese shock champion Isaac Nader, who crossed the line in 3: 34.10.

Wightman was crowned world champion in 2022 but had had trouble since an injury since, a fate he admitted had even fractured his relationship with the father and former coach Geoff.

Wightman was beaten two hundredths of a second by the Portuguese shock champion Isaac Nader

Wightman dropped his father – the advertiser of the stadium in Tokyo – as a coach in March, making the huge personal sacrifice to uproot his life in Manchester to be closer to his physiotherapist, and used his future stepfather John Hartigan as a new coach.

Wightman said Sky Sports: “The difficult song was not going. The difficult song would have been if I stayed longer because as much as I hate being injured and it is miserable for me – it’s exactly the same for him and for both of us, it’s a big test. It’s a lot of stress on our relationship.

“We probably had much more disputes and arguments in the years I was injured that I never had in my career and it was the kind of point where I was getting a little challenge for both of us.

“I think the best thing about this was that I saved a father by what is happening. If it had continued longer and I had not had the result I wanted, it could have derailed our relationship beyond being an athlete and a coach, but I knew he was always there and being in my corner.

“He always talked to me and sent messages to the races as if he always trained me and he made me the athlete that I am.”

In finishing second, he said: “I did everything I could to try to get a gold medal in this final and I don’t think I could have done more.

“My initial thought was that I was so close, I would have liked to be able to tighten a little more, but there was no way that I could have run better than me so that the silver medal represents a lot of hard work.”

A few dark years

Wightman was forced to withdraw from last summer Olympic Games with a hamstring injury

Wightman was relieved to go through a test spell on the track.

“It was a few years very dark for me. Often, I doubted myself, even that I could come back to this level, so doing this team was the main thing,” he said.

“I made huge changes in my life in the past year to try to come back to this point.

“It will take a while to treat this. I am very convinced that you somehow get what you put at some point.

“When I continued to get kicked when I was out, I kept believing that at some point, Karma was going to come back and give me a little luck.

“I almost got there, but for me, it’s a gold – just climbing on the starting line in a championship final is a gold. I entered with a little freedom knowing that what happened, and I am so relieved.”

The 31-year-old man was forced to withdraw from last summer Olympic Games with an injury to the hamstrings, a low point which he described as exceptionally “cruel”.

“I really wondered if it was something I wanted to do again,” admitted Wightman. “It was the worst a little hanging of a carrot, then tear it away at the last minute when I am about to take a bite.

“Even the way it probably played on me and my father’s relationship, I don’t think that if I had been successful years, I would have made a change.”