SARAH Adlington knows what it is to battle the odds. The 32-year-old has been plagued by injury throughout her career but the past year has been the Edinburgh judoka’s best spell in terms of staying fit since she won gold at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.
And she could not have timed it better. On Thursday, the World Championships begin in Baku, Azerbaijan and Adlington is one of three Scots selected to represent GB alongside Olympic bronze medallist, along with Sally Conway and 21-year-old Stuart McWatt, who will make his World Championship debut next week.
Despite being a mainstay of the British team for a number of years, this will be Adlington’s first World Championship appearance since 2013 due to a run of injuries which included career-threatening problems with her shoulder and knee, but this recent spell of uninterrupted training and competing has already seen her rack up impressive results, including most recently a silver medal at the European Open in Madrid.
This run of form has filled Adlington with confidence as she heads to Baku and while judo is one of those sports in which winning and losing can come down to the finest of margins, she admits she is feeling in the kind of shape that could see her go on a run through the field.
“I’m at a stage now that I’m getting more confident in what I can do,” the +78kgs fighter said. “I’ve been competing consistently since last June without having to have an unforeseen break and what’s been so positive about that is that after I fight, I’ve been able to move on to the next event and fix things rather than have a break.
“It’s not just a physical thing, a lot of it is mental too. So much of it is about confidence – confidence in my body and also confidence in my ability. And being comfortable in that competitive environment is massive and you can only practice that when you’re in it.”
And despite everything the Scot has been through, she is optimistic that all going well, she could produce a very strong performance in Baku which, she hopes, could potentially yield some silverware.
“There might have been some people who doubted I could get back to this point after my injuries but my coach and I knew what I was capable of,” she said. “It’s just a case of putting it all together on the day. I’ve beaten world number ones so I know I have what it takes to beat really top-class opponents, it’s just a case of stringing everything together on the day.
“A little bit of luck with the draw is sometimes helpful but if you want to win it, you’ve got to beat the best people anyway. But for me, if I can perform to the best of my ability, I’m definitely capable of getting on the podium. But equally, if I perform my best and don’t get a medal, I won’t have any regrets.”
This World Championships has extra significance as it contributes to Olympic qualification. And with Adlington self-funded due to her insistence that she wanted to remain in Edinburgh rather than move to the British Judo base in Walsall, this is a major opportunity to earn some all-important qualification points. But having been through two Olympic qualification cycles in the past, albeit without success, Adlington will not put undue pressure on herself this time around.
“Olympic qualifying is a marathon, not a sprint,” she said. “If you get too caught up in qualification, which I think I did for Rio, then it becomes so stressful and you just can’t perform.
“The last cycle, because it was so stop-start with injuries, every time I was fit enough to compete, I was constantly under pressure because I felt like I needed to get results. So at this World Champs, I’m trying to look at it like it’s just another competition and not get too carried away with the hype. I need to just focus on going there and performing.”
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