It has been a little over two weeks since Great Britain’s Helen Clitheroe won her very first major title, over 3000m at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Paris earlier this month, and she is still high in the clouds after having the gold medal hung around her neck.
At the age of 37, she is the second oldest winner ever at the Championships.
“I feel that I’ve touched a lot of people. I think everyone’s thought: ‘Ah, bless. She’s been trying for so long’,” said Clitheroe, in an interview with the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph.
“When you get into your thirties, the question you keep getting asked is: ‘When are you stopping?’ You don’t get asked about what’s next,” she says. “And then you see friends from the sport retiring around you.
“But I didn’t want to finish. Even during the down times, my husband, Neil, and my coach would say: ‘Are you sure you want to stop because once you finish, that will be it. You won’t be able to go back’.
“I think that’s kept me going, and maybe also a bit of unfinished business. I always felt that I could do better than I’ve done. Immediately after winning my feeling was just happiness. It was just a bit of payback for all the work I’ve put in.”
Clitheroe puts down some of her improvement this winter on her decision at the end of last year not to run the 3000m steeplechase anymore, despite being the British record holder for the event with 9:29.14, which she ran in her heat at the 2008 Olympic Games.
The last steeplechase of her career was almost certainly at the Commonwealth Games last October, where she finished fourth.
“I found the hurdling really difficult and I’m not very good at it. It made me feel negative because I was constantly frustrated by it,” she admitted.
She now plans to step up seriously to 5000m, having only run a handful of races over the distance in her career, her last one being in 2008.
Clitheroe is aiming to make the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, this summer but the long term goal is to go to her third Olympic Games, which in 2012 will be on home soil in London.
“That’s what’s kept me going really, the thought of being able to compete in a home Olympics. It will be amazing. I’ve been to two Olympics, both of which were incredible experiences, but to compete on a home surface at an Olympic Games would be just a great way to tie it all up really.
“If I could make it to the final; that really would be amazing. I’ve never qualified for an Olympic final in two Olympics, so it would be a massive goal for me if I made the team,” added Clitheroe.