British teenager grows up quickly to ensure Olympic 800m progress on her debut, as Hodgkinson and Reekie avoid any dramas at the first qualifying stage
Phoebe Gill spent part of the day before her Olympic debut looking a pictures of her “young self” running a primary school cross country race. Given that she is just 17, those days were really not so long ago.
And this impressive teenage talent did a huge amount of growing up in a very short space of time – 1:58.83 to be precise – at the Stade de France on Friday night (August 2) as she joined fellow Britons Keely Hodgkinson and Jemma Reekie in qualifying for the women’s 800m semi-finals of Paris 2024.
These opening heats were far more routine for her more experienced team-mates – Reekie cruising clear to win the opening race in exactly two minutes, while gold medal favourite Hodgkinson also avoided trouble in winning heat four in 1:59.31.
There was nothing routine about stepping on to that purple track for Gill, however. With the stands full and the spotlight on her in heat three, when the camera moved its way along starting line-up and lingered in front of her, the St Albans athlete caught sight of her face on the huge stadium screen and feared she might start to cry.
Taking a few deep breaths, a dose of positive self talk and “muttering a few swear words” helped, although it was hard for Gill to find any sense of calm when she hit the halfway mark in third place and saw it had taken just 57.6 seconds for her to get there.
At the 600m mark, she slipped to fourth – outside of the automatic qualifying places – and her mind began to whir towards having to deal with tomorrow’s repechage round. Yet she refused to let her composure slip and willed herself into the position she wanted, coming home behind the 1:58.07 of Ethiopia’s Worknesh Mesele and the 1:58.59 from Rénelle Lamote of France.
“We’re in a different league now,” admitted the British champion. “I’m so used to front running my races and not having to worry about people behind me but, with these professionals, you have to be adaptable and be on your game constantly so I’m happy that I was able to get third in this calibre of race.”
Gill’s maturity and composure off the track belies her tender years, too. She had mentally prepared herself for every eventuality, albeit she admits that in itself is something of an endurance test.
“I have to think through every situation in my head, which can cause me a lot of…
CLICK HERE to Read the Full Original Article at AW…