British middle-distance runner has experienced multiple ups and downs and twists and turns since winning an English Schools 800m title back in 2008
It is 15 years since Georgia Bell proudly stood on top of the podium on a cool and drizzly weekend at the English Schools Championships in Gateshead. Since then she has fallen in and out of love with athletics, endured an injury-stricken spell at university in the United States, started a high-flying job in cyber security and dabbled with duathlon. Yet now, on the eve of the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow, she is a bona fide 1500m medal contender with ambitions of making the Paris Olympics.
Unbeaten on the track in 2024 with PBs of 4:03 for 1500m and 8:42 for 3000m, the 30-year-old is thriving with coach Trevor Painter after teaming up with him again after a long break. One of the most exciting athletes to emerge during the indoor season so far, she could really earn a name for herself if she makes the podium this weekend.
“I’ve got really good momentum with racing at the moment” she says, “and I’m grateful to have a second shot with running. I’m seizing every opportunity.”
Back at Gateshead in 2008, Bell won the junior girls’ 800m title in 2:09.28 aged 14. Winners in the same age group that year included sprinter Jodie Williams, javelin thrower Freya Jones and long jumper Jazmin Sawyers, whereas gold medallists in older age categories that weekend included Katarina Johnson-Thompson in the high jump and Charlotte Purdue in the 3000m. The event was even broadcast live on Sky Sports despite clashing with the Olympic trials in Birmingham.
Georgia Bell in 2008 (Mark Shearman)
Some of the older athletes at those English Schools Championships could feasibly envisage making the GB team for London 2012. Bell’s performances, however, began to tail off a little and, despite featuring in AW in 2015, she largely went off the radar.
“I was a top under-15 and under-17 runner for 800m at the time,” she remembers, “so the foundations were always there. But I went to the US for university and never ran faster than I did when I was in the UK.”
Georgia Bell in 2009 (Mark Shearman)
Bell, who is from West London, studied in Birmingham and then the prestigious Berkeley in California. “I was there for two years and about half the time I was in a boot injured,” she says. “There was a high mileage mentality which didn’t really work for me.”
She adds: “Once I finished my collegiate…
CLICK HERE to Read the Full Original Article at AW…