Jemma Reekie broke two more British records at the Millrose Games in New York last night. Recording a time of 4 minutes 17.88 seconds - beating Laura Muir’s previous British indoor mile record - she also ran the first 1500m in four minutes 0.56 seconds to break the British 1500m record as well.
Reekie is fresh off beating the British indoor 800-metre record at a Glasgow invitational last week - making this her third record in eight days.
Competing at the longest running indoor track-and-field event in the world - the Millrose’s Wanamaker Mile - she finished third behind Konstanze Klosterhalfen of Germany (4:17.26) and Elle Purrier of the USA (4:16.85). Such was the speed of the race, though - Reekie’s time is now the fifth fastest indoor mile ever.
At the post-match press conference, the 21-year old Reekie explained that, straight after the race - "I actually phoned my coach and said - is that okay? I had no clue of what a good mile time was but yea, it's a new British record so I'm really pleased that I've realised that's what happened."
Reekie has shatter her previous personal bests since the start of the year - beating her previous 800m PB by five seconds, her mile PB by almost 10 seconds and indoor 1500m by 13 seconds.
She credits her form to being - “in the best shape of my life,” as well as a full block of winter training, something she says hasn’t been the case in the past. “I get sick quite a lot and the past few years I’ve missed lots of time off training,” she said.
“We decided to get a sinus operation to put a stop to that. It’s an Olympic year and I wanted to be in the best possible place,” said the Scot. “It was two days before Christmas so it was a sore Christmas but I’d say it’s worth it now,” she laughed.
"I'm getting more confident," Reekie mentioned before adding, "I tell myself - you deserve to be on this start line. I'm not a junior anymore, I'm not an under-23 anymore, I need to step up to be a senior."
Even after this rich vein of results, Reekie said, “I know how much I can improve.”
“I’ll just keep working, keeping my head down for Tokyo - and hope I can go to my first Olympics.”
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