JAKE WIGHTMAN’S winter and spring has been “uneventful”, and that’s exactly how he likes it.

With the biggest summer of his career ahead of him, Wightman was in no mood for anything unplanned to sabotage his preparation which will, he hopes, see him become Scotland’s first male Olympic athletics medallist in over 40 years.

There is much work to be done before the Olympics begin in two months time though.

This evening, Wightman will begin his season at the Golden Spike meet in Ostrava, Czech Republic, and the outing over 800m will be only his second race, and first outdoors, in over eight months.

Wightman heads into this campaign buoyed by his performances last year. The 26-year-old came out of last year’s Covid lockdown absolutely flying, setting personal bests in both the 800m and 1500m, breaking the Scottish record in the longer distance in the process.

And while he’s not expecting miracles this evening, Wightman is optimistic he’s ready to progress his performances on even further.

“I think I’ve built on last year,” he says. “My winter has been uneventful in that I didn’t catch Covid and I haven’t had any injuries and they’re the kind of things that are important to make sure your summer goes well.

“I don’t really know how fit I am - starting racing will be the first test of that but I’m hoping I can open up where I left off last season.”

Wightman is one of a number of truly world-class British middle-distance 1500m runners who are fighting for the three available spots in Team GB for the Olympics. However, he is in a more fortuitous position than most of his fellow Brits in that he already has the Olympic qualifying time under his belt meaning all he has to focus on now is a top-two finish at the Olympic trials in June to ensure he books his ticket to Japan.

However, Wightman has far loftier ambitions than merely collecting the Olympic tracksuit. Having already won Commonwealth and European medals, he took things to the next level in 2019 with a fifth-place finish at the World Championships. With these impressive major championship performances, Wightman has somewhat separated himself from his compatriots, which include fellow Scots Josh Kerr, Neil Gourley and Chris O’Hare, and so heads into this season with not inconsiderable pressure upon his shoulders.

For some, that would feel like a burden but Wightman is taking the increased expectation in his stride.

“If there’s any pressure it’s because I’ve earned it so it’s not a bad thing,” he says. “There’s the famous Billie Jean King quote “pressure is a privilege”, and I think that’s true; if there’s pressure on me it’s because I’ve earned that right.

“I feel like I have something to prove this year. Last year, I ran well but there’s wasn’t a major championships so this year is when it really matters. That’s a good thing, I think I need that incentive to get the best out of myself. “This year, I want to show what I can do.”

It is impossible to speak to an elite runner these days without mentioning the new phenomenon of super-shoes. The new shoe technology has seen a raft of fast times, with these performances almost without exception being attributed to the athletes’ footwear. The talk of the shoes is, admits Wightman, somewhat frustrating with, he believes, the benefit they bring somewhat overblown and rather than a form of cheating, as some have claimed, this is merely the sport progressing.

“People seem to forget that first of all, you want to wear the best spikes you can. If everyone else is wearing them, you obviously want to wear them too. And if you’re sponsored, you wear what you’re given,” says Wightman, who is sponsored by New Balance who have developed their own carbon-plated spike to compete with the original technology developed by Nike.

“We’re all still having to train really hard and we’re still in great shape to go and run these times. “Especially in championship racing, it doesn’t matter about the spikes. If everyone is wearing good spikes, it’s a fair competition. “Sport progresses and this is part of that. In ten years time, it won’t be the spikes, it’ll be something else that creates this kind of debate.

“There’ll always be some development that then gets forgotten because it becomes the norm.

“I think we’ll get to the point where every single brand has shoes that are similar to the others.”

Wightman’s primary focus, for now at least, is to ensure he begins his season strongly. However, with the Olympics looming, he admits it is impossible to banish thoughts of Tokyo, and potential success there, from his mind entirely. While too much focus on the Olympics can be detrimental, Wightman is in no doubt that the desire to achieve Olympic success will do him no harm in the coming weeks.

“The motivation for this season is obviously getting to the Olympics and seeing how well I can do there - everything else is just leading up to that. But a lot can happen before I get to the Games,” he says. “As a kid, the dream for most athletes would be to win Olympic gold and so to have an opportunity at all to do that is so exciting and thinking about it is such a motivation. “So it’s always in my mind but it’s about not getting carried away and actually, the closer it gets, the more you have to take it race by race.

“My first race tonight is important because it’ll set me up for the season and then it’s about making sure I don’t look too far ahead.”