Beth Potter ran the World Championships 10,000 metres on Saturday then immediately set her sights on qualifying for the Commonwealth Games in a completely different sport.
Her ability to run only represent one third of the requirement for the 25-year-old Glaswegian when she competes in Belgium this weekend in the latest stage of her evolution into a multi-discipline athlete since deciding to try her hand at triathlon at the beginning of this year and the Rio Olympian is revelling in the challenge.
“I still love running,” she said.
“That was an amazing crowd and it’s great to be back out here in London, especially after the disappointing Olympic performance, but I’m enjoying both and I’m learning all the time about the triathlon.
“I’ve actually got a qualifier for the Commonwealth Games in triathlon on Sunday next week. No rest now back at training and ready to race again.”
On the face of, given the specificity of so much modern elite training, it is a remarkable turn-around and Potter admitted the build-up to the World Championships had not been ideal, but not because of any clash between the two. Instead she has been afflicted by a combination of injury and bereavement.
“It been tricky because of the injuries I’ve had. I had to reduce my running to even less than it was before Highgate (the World Championship qualifying event which she won) because of a foot problem. I was advised just to do quality work, so I have missed a bit of mileage, but I do a lot in the pool and on the bike so I just didn’t have the kind of 5K sharpness to go with it when it went away,” she explained.
“It’s healed, though. It’s just been a bit restricting and my grandpa passed away last week as well so I’ve had a rocky couple of weeks into this but I’m pretty happy with it. I’ve had really good sessions, I just probably don’t have that kind of sharp end surge when the break came.”
It was a race that sparked controversy when Potter’s fellow Scot Liz McColgan, the 10,000 metres world champion in 1991, sparked a social media row by asking telling questions of the credentials of Ethiopian winner Almaz Ayana, who had not been seen in competition this season, but destroyed the field in London just as she had done when breaking the world record by 14 seconds at the Olympics last year.
Undaunted, Potter had run her own race, growing in strength towards the end and having also picked herself out of the Callendar Park mud earlier this year to claim a podium finish at the Scottish Country Championships, she has clearly done her family proud with the attitude she has shown to continually challenging herself since putting that effort with which she was so disappointed in Rio.
“It was about just getting involved and not giving up. I was still picking people off towards the end,” she said noting that it had been the first time she had pulled on a pair of running spikes since that qualifying competition in May.
Potter consequently now moves onto her next challenge – that crucial sprint triathlon meeting this coming weekend - with considerable relish, not least because of the opportunity it represents to confirm her involvement on the Gold Coast, representing Scotland.
“I’ve done two and podiumed in both,” she said.
“It’s in Belgium in the European Cup. We have European competitions that we use as qualifiers. I’m new to his as well and learning all the time what they’re all about, so it’s not an official trial but if I get on the podium I get qualification for the Commonwealths.”
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