Following a record equalling World Athletics Championship medal haul in Budapest, there is genuine reason for optimism for the British team as the Paris 2024 Olympic Games draws ever closer.
With many of our female athletes delivering high quality and break out performances in 2023, it’s time to meet some of the British stars that can enter Olympic season with big aspirations.
Johnson Thompson Bidding for Heptathlon Title
There is very little that Katarina Johnson Thompson has not experienced throughout her career, from the highest of highs, to the lowest of lows. However, KJT will head to Paris as a double world heptathlon champion after she fought her way back to the top of the world in Budapest.
After an injury interrupted few years, including a severe Achilles rupture, the Liverpool Harrier completed a remarkable return to the top with a consistent and gritty performance across the seven events, with personal bests in the Javelin and a gripping 800m capping off a magnificent two days of competition.
The final event in Budapests heptathlon was quite simply, sport in its purest and most beautiful form, as two athletes fought tooth and nail around two laps of the track with every ounce of energy and will power they had left. It was the ultimate game of cat and mouse as Johnson Thompson tracked USAs Anna Hall all the way, ensuring the gap remained less than three seconds so to cling on to her gold medal. It was a pulsating two minutes of racing, a run symbolic of KJTs determination and bouncebackability that she will always be idolised for. 2023 was capped off in style for Johnson Thompson as she was named Athletics Weekly’s British female athlete of the year, as well as coming in third place at BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
Paris 2024 will be KJTs fourth Olympic Games having made her debut at London 2012 as an eighteen year old. The heptathlon competition has the potential to be one of the highlights of the entire games, with fierce competition likely to feature in the shape of defending Olympic champion Naffisatou Thiam of Belgium, Dutchwoman Anouk Vetter, a world class thrower in her own right, and Anna Hall, ready to renew rivalries.
Now under the tutorage of coach Aston Moore, Johnson Thompson will head to France, the home of her former training base, targeting a first Olympic medal, to add to an already glittering CV.
Are Big Year Ahead for Muir
Scottish middle distance expert Laura Muir won 1500m silver in Tokyo and she will be looking to go one better this time around, however she is likely to have the dominant world record holder Faith Kipyegon to contend with. After disrupted preparations, the 30 year old from Inverness finished sixth in the 1500m final in Budapest, but attention has now turned towards a home world indoor championships in March, where she will be the toast of the Scottish crowd in Glasgow.
Muir has amassed a wealth of experience across many different events throughout her career and has provided many memorable moments for British athletics fans. After a turbulent few seasons of injury problems and coaching changes, Muir will draw upon all of this wisdom in her bid for a rostrum finish in 2024.
Sprint Duo Prepared for Domestic & International Battles
Dina Asher Smith and Daryl Neita can look forward to another season of competing both on the domestic front, as well as in international competition after many closely fought battles in 2023.
Neita made great strides last season, winning the British 200m title, an event fast becoming her great strength, before producing an electric run to finish fifth in the World championship final. Despite narrowly missing out on the 100m final, the London born athlete can take great heart as she heads for her third Olympic Games.
The 2019 world 200m champion Dina Asher Smith took the British 100m title and went on to reach both the 200m and 100m finals in Budapest, but was left disappointed after seventh and eighth placed finishes respectively. Asher Smith is a known championship performer, who radiates positivity and will remain an athlete for the rest of the world to fear ahead of next summers games.
Major Promise in the Middle Distance
The women’s 800m has become a blue ribboned event in track and field in recent years, largely due to the rivalry between a trio of world class athletes who have served up many a thrilling race throughout the last few seasons. Great Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson has gone toe to toe with Kenya’s Mary Moraa and Athing Mu of the USA with all three securing medals galore. At just 21 year old, Hodgkinson has three global silver medals to her name, plus the 2023 diamond league trophy.
Under the guidance of Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows, the next target for the athlete from Wigan is a global outdoor title, with the next opportunity coming at the Stade De France in August.
Another athlete causing ripples in this event is Jemma Reekie. Reekie finished fifth in the most recent world 800m final, hot on the heels of the events dominant trio. The 2023 season represented a season of change for the 25 year old Scot after she and friend Laura Muir had a high profile split from their long term coach Andy Young, with Reekie since joining the training regime of John Bigg. Reekie has already made a splash on the indoor circuit early in 2024, laying exciting foundations ahead of a huge year. The British contingent in the middle distances provide many possibilities in Paris.
Another athlete heading for her fourth Olympics is distance runner Eilish McColgan. Having forged a career in the distance events on the track, in recent years McColgan has competed in the marathon, however she admits her greatest medal chance in Paris lay on the track. Injuries have troubled the athlete from Dundee since her phenomenal gold medal in the commonwealth 10,000m in Birmingham but she is on the road to full fitness under the coaching of her mother Liz McColgan. If McColgan can claim her first Olympic medal, she would emulate her mothers achievement after Liz claimed 10,000m silver in Seoul 1998.
Possibilities for British Field Eventers
These are potentially exciting times for team GB in regards to the women’s pole vault. British record holder and current Olympic bronze medalist Holly Bradshaw endured a frustrating recent season, having to contend with the misfortune of a snapped pole whilst performing a practice vault at the world championships in 2022 and the injuries that unfortunately followed. Bradshaw is the only Brit in history to win an Olympic pole vault medal, after producing the current British record of 4.90m in claiming Tokyo Bronze. In a perilous event that Bradshaw knows only to well that things can go wrong, with experiences like these can be crucial in the distribution of medals.
2023 was a ground breaking season in the life and career of Molly Caudery. Keen to build on her commonwealth pole vault silver at the Birmingham commonwealth games, Caudery headed to Budapest in the form of her life. Caudery who trains alongside Holly Bradshaw under coach Scott Simpson produced a lifetime best of 4.75m in the world championship final last year, finishing fifth in a high class field.
Caudery’s rise has continued into the new year as she vaulted another new lifetime best, this time a world leading 4.83m on the indoor circuit in January, causing a real stir in the event so early in Olympic year. She recently proceeded to extend this personal best further, to another world lead of 4.85m at the British Indoor Championships in February. There is real scope for genuine optimism for Caudery heading forward into 2024.
Morgan Lake improved steadily throughout 2023, culminating in a fourth place finish in the high jump final in Budapest with a leap of 1.97m, placing her just two centimetres out of the medals. Lake, a heptathlete in her youth, has endured a tumultuous relationship with the high jump, however her showing last season proves she could be a force to be reckoned with moving forward.
You could have been forgiven for mistaking qualification for the women’s long jump final in Budapest for the hunger games. With over half of the field capable of leaping over the automatic qualifying mark, and only twelve spots in the final up for grabs, we knew many strong athletes would miss out on the final. This was unfortunately the case for Jazmin Sawyers, a hugely popular member of the British team, who was also hampered by a slight injury niggle. Despite this disappointment, Sawyers was in the form of her life in 2023, having claimed the European indoor title against a strong field in March as well as jumping over 7m for the very first time. Sawyers is mixing it with the very best, in what is admittedly a hotly contested event.
Relay Teams
British relay teams have a rich recent history in Olympic relays, both in the 4x100m and 4x400m disciplines and there is now the added excitement of the mixed 4x400m relay set to make its debut in an Olympic programme next year in Paris.
Great Britain’s women’s 4x100m teams have won bronze in each of the last two editions at the Olympic Games, with Dina Asher Smith and Daryl Neita featuring in both of these successful quartets. In an event with as much jeopardy as the sprint relay, consistency and familiarity is key because well rehearsed baton changes can be the difference between disqualification and a potential medal. Along with USA and Jamaica, the events biggest hitters, GBs female sprinters will be aiming to end the athletics programme on a high once more.
Bronze medals have also been the best results for British 4x400m athletes at Olympic Games, with third place finishes coming most recently in Rio 2016 and Beijing 2008. The 2008 individual 400m gold medalist Christine Ohuruogu was a member of both of these quartets, but this time around in Paris it is likely to be her sister Victoria, the current UK number one in the event, lining up for Great Britain. There is no shortage of pedigree as GB hunt for more relay medals in France.
The sheer level of strength in depth across British 400m running, has contributed to great success in the mixed 4x400m relay, an event first contested in an international competition at the 2017 world relay championships. After the GB team featuring Laviai Nielsen and Yemi Mary John claimed silver in the event in Budapest, hopes are high ahead of the first ever Olympic mixed 4x400m relay.
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