Our special guest for this episode is Georgia Bell, who chats about the rapid progress she has made since returning to athletics.
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00:00Hello, my name's Ewan Crumley and welcome to the latest episode of the Athletics Weekly
00:12podcast. In each show, we bring you everything you need to know from the world of run, jump
00:16and throw, analysing the biggest stories and speaking to key names from the sport. There's
00:21a lot to cover in this episode. For one thing, another track and field season has just come
00:25to a close with the Diamond League final and what a memorable one it's been. From national
00:30area and world records falling to European and Olympic medals being won, there's been
00:36little let up in the action. It's only a short break for the athletes and a few are already
00:40back into training ahead of the winter. Some will do so with a point to prove after a year
00:45that didn't quite go to plan, while others, such as Georgia Bell, cover star of the October
00:50issue of AW that is out now, will have a spring in their step after taking huge strides
00:55forward in 2024. The Olympic and European 1500 metre medalist, not to mention British
01:02record holder, is also our special guest on this episode and we'll be hearing from her
01:06later. Autumn marathon season is now in full swing too and with a packed road race calendar
01:11in the coming weeks, there will once again be plenty of discussion around footwear. With
01:16that in mind, I'm joined this time not only by Wendy Sly, former world road race 10 kilometre
01:21champion and Olympic 3000 metre silver medallist, of course, but also Paul Freire, a man who
01:26knows a thing or two about running quick times on the tarmac as well, but is also AW's products
01:31reviewer and running shoe guru. Welcome to you both.
01:36Hi, good morning.
01:38We'll start with the finish to the track and field season. I mean, what have you both made
01:43of this year? Wendy, has it been one to remember, do you think?
01:49I think for me, it felt like the first time track and field was back the way it was before
01:55the pandemic. I know we're a few years on now from that time, but it felt like the Olympics
02:02was a normal Olympics in a city that embraced it and was able to stage it in the right way.
02:08We had European championships, which I think the Brits tend to love because it's seen as a
02:14platform for a lot of our athletes to bigger things. We had a normal diamond league circuit
02:20and we had some fantastic performances across the board. So it felt like a return to
02:25normality, a great season, a season to remember. And yeah, I think lots of I think if we
02:32all sat here for 10 minutes, we could think of 20, 30 wonderful performances, not just from
02:39Brits, but from athletes around the world.
02:42Yeah, and Paul, this has been a year when distance running, middle distance running as
02:46well has really shown itself off.
02:49Yeah, it's been a really exciting year and action packed as well, not only with the
02:55Olympics, but the Diamond League right from the beginning. Remember the pre-classic right at
03:02the beginning of the season when we had Josh Kerr coming out all guns blazing and then just
03:08the drama around the Kurt Ingebrigtsen story at the Olympics and neither of them taking the
03:14big prize in the end of it.
03:16But then just recently, Josh Kerr winning Fifth Avenue Mile, so himself transitioning onto the
03:21roads after a busy track season. So a fantastic season on the track, particularly at middle
03:27distance and a lot of surprises. And it kind of pays the way beautifully into the winter and the
03:32road racing season and perhaps the indoors as well. When, you know, who's going to do what? I
03:38mean, Josh Kerr does do a couple of races indoors usually. We'll see what will Ingebrigtsen and
03:45everybody else do. So exciting times, really.
03:48Yeah, Ingebrigtsen does tend to head out onto the cross country as well for the European Cross. So
03:54he missed it last year with injury, but it'll be interesting as well to see if he heads out to
04:00Turkey in December. And this time of year is an interesting one as well, because towards the end
04:06of the season, sort of that post Olympics period, between the Olympics finishing, and then the
04:12season coming to a close, you could see athletes who some athletes just wanted to keep going and
04:17going and going. And other ones when they just were desperate to get on holiday.
04:23Yes, you saw athletes like Laura Muir, who finished at the end after the Olympics, and just
04:28basically said, I've had enough for the year, and it's time for me to take a rest. And then others,
04:34like George Bell, who kept going right to the very end. And, you know, a lot of the sprinters, of
04:39course, who took part in the Athos meeting, and 1500m runners in New York. And that, to me,
04:49watching felt like a very long season for some of them, particularly those that competed indoors or
04:55ran in the early Diamond League meetings as well. It's a long time to keep a high level of
05:00performance, not just physically, but mentally as well. Because you still have to, every single
05:07time, stand on the start line, wanting to put in a great performance. And that's a tough thing to
05:12keep going for a race after race and month after month.
05:16Yeah, and this is obviously part of the thinking, Paul, behind the sort of world athletics, placing
05:21the World Championships from now on, right at the end of the season. So there's not that sort of
05:27strange kind of gap where it becomes the climax and the, you know, to the to the whole year.
05:34Yeah, absolutely. And again, it adds to the drama and it's kind of building up the excitement
05:40throughout the season as well. I also think kind of athletes sometimes have to look, or will probably
05:46be looking, you know, it's a profession, it's a career. So and it can potentially be a very short
05:52career. You know, you're never too far away from potential injury or illness. So I guess you're
06:01looking at the bigger picture sometimes, what you can step into after athletics and what your
06:07earnings potential are during the peak of your career as well. So some may want to continue year
06:14round, whereas others, you know, perhaps more established, you know, are capable, know what
06:22they're capable of, know they can take a break and know they can come back quite easily. And I think
06:28I'm like a lot of regular runners, if you like a couple of weeks with a cold or an injury and you
06:35think it's the end of the world, you know, and you kind of never want to be, you never want to be
06:39too far away from being fit. But, you know, these are professionals. So there's a lot of
06:44considerations.
06:45So to so many of these, the athletes are on Instagram and a quick look on there just now will
06:52show that there's a good number are still firmly on holiday. But also there's quite a few are
06:59starting to head back into training to take their first steps back into the winter. Wendy, did you
07:04find this a difficult process to get through? Or were you looking forward to getting back to
07:11training after your winter break?
07:14I always used to take three or four weeks off at the end of the summer. And I think like a lot of
07:19the athletes at the end of this summer, I was always looking forward to that break. But you very
07:23quickly want to get back training again. And at the end of three or four weeks, I was chomping at the
07:28bit and ready to take those first sort of tenuous steps back into jogging and then and then training
07:35hard with a group. But I think as Paul touched on earlier, you know, some of the athletes will have a
07:43plan maybe to run it European cross country or indoors, or maybe just be thinking in longer term into
07:50next year and perhaps starting their track season early and running in the early Diamond League
07:55meeting. So it's going to be very interesting this winter to watch how people come out of their breaks
08:01and what their plans unravel into whether it be a full fully packed indoor season, a season on the road,
08:10or whether they just go quiet for a few months while they're back getting themselves fit in the
08:16gym and on the track.
08:18Yeah, and two people I saw socialising on Instagram were Mondo Deplantis and Karsten Vorholm. And they
08:26were the subject of a very interesting event just before the end of the season when they had their
08:32100 metre showdown, which Mondo was hugely impressive and winning, I personally thought. But it was an
08:39interesting experiment as well. And it got quite a lot of attention and created quite a lot of debate. And
08:47Paul, do you think this sort of potentially opens the way up to more sort of exhibition events like
08:53this, something a little bit different? Is there is there room for them in the sport, do you think?
08:58Yeah, possibly. I mean, it was a very exciting event. I think the production behind the whole
09:04race, that kind of 30 minute or 40 minute show, it worked really well. Now, I don't know if that would
09:12translate to much more, perhaps two or three to make that a 60 minute, 90 minute kind of special with three
09:20showdowns. But perhaps athletes crossing over, you know, so Vorholm got a little niggle after that. So
09:32will athletes be a little bit more cautious now, you know, to do things? I think in kind of middle distance
09:39sprints coming together, okay. But of course, it all boils down to the personality of the athletes and their
09:45ability to build up the show, as it were. And I think that was a key element to that the production, like I say,
09:50it was fantastic. I really enjoyed that that show element of it. And the kind of the build up the preamble to, to
09:58the actual race itself. So it was a nice experiment. And maybe it's something that we will see with the, you
10:03know, the Grand Slam series next year. I think that's kind of heading towards that direction a little bit
10:10where athletes have to cross over and double up over the course of the two days. So yeah, exciting times ahead,
10:16I think.
10:17Yeah. Wendy, you were there in Zurich to see Mondo and Karsten sort of go head to head. And as Paul's alluded
10:24to there, it feels like, you know, and it's a very interesting time for the sport. It feels like there's the
10:30landscapes starting to change with the Grand Slam track announcing more of their plans for next year. And also,
10:38you know, events like Alex Ohanian's, the Athlos New York meeting recently as well.
10:46Yeah, I mean, I was very lucky to be in Zurich to watch the event. And as Paul alluded to, you know, I was very
10:53pleasantly surprised with how it how it all happened. And what a great show it was when you think it was just one
11:02race. And I think a lot of that was down to the two individual athletes who I think took on the challenge
11:10wonderfully well, and rose to the occasion and to the cameras really too, because it was a bit of a show. It was
11:20also the staging and the way that they delivered it at the Zurich Stadium by just keeping that home straight for
11:28spectators. And it was pretty packed, I have to say, just to say for a 10 second performance. But it was a unique
11:36set of circumstances, I think, where you had two great athletes, both capable of running well over one distance, two
11:42great personalities, end of season, because as Paul said, you know, Carson did walk away with a slight niggle and
11:50wasn't able to compete the following day.
12:06I don't know how many versions of that you can roll out over a period of time. But it's, it's a great concept. And I
12:15think it's a great way to, you know, to, you know, to, you know, to, you know, to, you know, to, you know, to
12:25showcase two great athletes and, and our great sport. But moving on then to Grand Slam track and athletes, I guess that is, in
12:46a way a slightly bigger version of that. But with traditional events with athletes who regularly take part in those
12:54events, I mean, Athos was only a few events, a massive budget. That certainly is unique. There aren't that many
13:05opportunities to stage events with such huge budgets to bring in, bring in athletes and give them Tiffany crowns. Yeah, that is
13:18very, very unusual. And whether that's sustainable or not, I don't know. I guess that's down to the individual's
13:24concerned with that particular meeting. But I think the great thing about all of these ideas is they capture the public's
13:32imagination. Even if it's for that one window of 10 seconds with, with two athletes, a bit prior to a Diamond League, or whether
13:43it's a whole event, like Grand Slam track over one weekend, it's, it's getting people talking, and it's capturing people's
13:51imaginations. And that's what we want and need in the sport.
13:56Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, one event that is perhaps slightly lower key, but has captured imagination over the past 20
14:06years now, remarkably, is Parkrun, which is just celebrating that, that milestone. Paul, well, all three of us are no strangers to
14:16the, to our local Parkruns at all. You know, Paul, what was your first experience of it? And how have you used it as as part of your
14:25training or as part of your running?
14:28Gosh, you know, I, I did do one of the very early Parkruns. And I think it was in, I think it's called Hazel Grove. It's in
14:38Stockport, which is kind of South Manchester. So it's about 25 miles from my house. And I think it was one of the first, certainly in
14:46the first 10 in the UK to start. So it will be getting on, possibly 19 years ago. And I went over there a few times, and there's perhaps
14:5730 or 40 people doing it. And it kind of fitted in for me, personally, because I, I'm at work in the shop on Saturdays, I open at
15:0910am. So often, if I am going to run on a Saturday, it would be when I've been, you know, working all day, and I'm pretty tired, to be
15:19honest, been rushing about on my feet all day. And in the evening, it just becomes a kind of a nothing run, as it were. So it was an
15:27opportunity to get a kind of a harder session in 20 minutes and be back at work and ready to open for 10 o'clock. And it's still something I
15:37do. Now, to be honest, I think I've done about 180. So in the 20 year span, not a great deal, you know. So I'll probably do, I don't
15:53know, one a month right now. I'm now more cautious, though, because I've been trying to kind of focus a little bit more on marathons in the
16:01last couple of years. You do, it's not a race, remember, but it is very competitive. So you do tend to run a little bit harder than you
16:11anticipate sometimes. And at my age, that, you know, it does take a little bit longer to recover. So I find it affects my long Sunday run if I
16:21run too hard on a park run. So I do them sparingly now. But yeah, I love it. It is a great opportunity to, to run a little bit harder, just
16:31with other people. And it's, it's a very neat package, really, you go get it done, job done. It's very easy to fit into a schedule if you need
16:40something like that.
16:42Yeah. And Wendy, it's, you know, as, as Paul was saying, there's the sort of the sharper end of these events where people can't help but be
16:50competitive about it. But it does cover every single ability you can think of, and people can use it for every imaginable sort of purpose.
17:00I know I have to hold my hands up and say I've never done a park run. So yes, I'm probably one of the few runners out there that haven't. But I
17:09think it's probably when I hung up my spikes, I haven't really competed in anything very much. And although it's not supposed to be for
17:19competition, I think when you've got a running background, you can't help yourself, even if you're slow, you still want to compete. But I
17:28have in sort of various roles as helping coach or mentor, used Bushy Park as part of an athletes, I guess not necessarily training, but as a
17:44guide to see where they are. So I guess in that sense, yeah, part of training, but also a barometer to see how training's going. It's a
17:53great opportunity to do a tempo run and Bushy Park, which is the, you know, is the original park run is flat and fast. So you get a true
18:04reflection of where an athlete is at that moment in time. But you know, my local park run is very, very popular one. And hundreds of people
18:15turn out every Saturday morning at nine o'clock. And I think the lovely thing is it's opened up running to a much bigger audience. And very often
18:25park run is the start of something a bit bigger down the road. And yeah, and I think it offers something for so many people. And that's why it's been
18:36going for 20 years, I think, and it's survived everything lockdown included.
18:41And that leads us beautifully into our special guest. And park run has a very special place in the heart of Georgia Bell. She's had a truly
18:52extraordinary year having started it by having to balance her running with a full time career in cyber security. But a highly talented junior, she had
19:01left the sport after an injury plagued spell during her time at university in America. However, she rediscovered running during lockdown and a
19:09park run performance at Bushey Park helped pull her back towards athletics. She made a call to her old coach Trevor Painter last year, and has been
19:18making progress ever since. Now having taken a sabbatical in May to concentrate completely on her sport, her results really took off first winning
19:27European 1500 metre silver, then becoming British champion to secure a place at her first Olympics. In Paris, she not only stormed through to win
19:35bronze, but she also broke Laura Muir's British record into the bargain. I caught up with her not long after the Diamond League final when she was just
19:43beginning to process her achievements. So going back to your first conversations with with Jenny and Trevor, obviously, you've worked with Trevor in the
19:54past, but when it when it came to sort of working again, what were those initial conversations like? And the sort of the first sessions, what sort of footing
20:04did you you set off on with him?
20:06And it was just the kind of realisation that I was gonna have to be a little bit different than other athletes, I was still working full time, I wasn't based in
20:15Manchester. So I just kind of said, like, I will do all of the sessions, but I'll just have to do it on my own and like, let you know how it goes. So it was just
20:25kind of, they had my commitment, and just trusted that I was going to do it. And then obviously, when we got to racing a little bit more, we were seeing how that
20:37could match up against other athletes. And then after a few races, that's when Trevor was like, come out to altitude camp and actually see yourself coming up against
20:47people in the group to see how you would match up. And then from there, that was when I got an understanding that I could go from being just at BMCs in the UK to actually being
20:57in like a world level, which is the jump that all British athletes will make at some point if they they go to that next phase, but it's kind of having the confidence
21:08that you are ready and you you can do it.
21:10Yeah, and no pressure from them. But obviously, after your after your Olympic medal, you know, Jenny was talking about how much faster she thinks you can go. I guess you're approaching things now with a sort of a no limits kind of attitude.
21:28Yeah, I just honestly have no idea. Like, this whole year has taught me that there's no point of trying to put a ceiling on what you can achieve, like, train as hard as you can. And it's more like being really brave and going for it in races. Like, that's what's shown me that you can just blast off huge chunks of time in these events. So obviously, just the fact that I've only been a professional for four months,
21:57now I've resigned and gone like full time, all in, not going back to the corporate job. I am really excited to see what those times will look like next year. But who knows, I've just got to still keep still keep putting all my trust in them and and stay healthy and do all the right stuff. And yeah, hopefully, you would think next year, I would be able to get quicker. So we'll see.
22:24Thanks to Georgia for her time. And you can read much more from that interview in the October issue of AW, which is out now. Now, Wendy, you spoke to her recently as well. What have you made of what Georgia's managed to do this year?
22:38I think she's in a little bit of shock at how she's progressed. It's been a season of change for her. And I think she's embraced that change. And I think that's probably one of her keys to success, really, is just taking every race as it comes and enjoying the process.
23:00I mean, I spoke to her at the Diamond League final, and you could see that she was quite, quite tired because it's been a long year. But I think as well, she clearly loves racing. And as I say, has just enjoyed the journey that she's been on. And it has been an extraordinary journey.
23:19I think there are very few young athletes who disappear from the sport that come back with quite the amount of success that she's experienced. Obviously, a very talented young lady. So the ability was always there. But I think it's the mental ability to switch on that high level of competitiveness, really.
23:44And she's been able to grow with every race and notch up her expectations at every race as well.