Rejuvenated Clitheroe Defies Funding Withdrawal as London Olympics Loom

As two-time Olympian and European Indoor 3000m champion Helen Clitheroe recounts the most successful season of her career, she unknowingly presents a strong case to UK Athletics head coach Charles van Commenee that her Lottery funding should be reinstated.

 
Following a disappointing World Championships in 2009, Clitheroe was stripped of her financial backing and has since been reissued with the same disappointing news. After finishing sixth in her 3000m steeplechase heat at the Beijing Olympics, Clitheroe missed out on qualification for the final and convinced herself that any Olympic dreams were extinguished. Since then, the Preston-born middle distance runner has defied expectations, adversity and age with a series of impressive performances, and it is clear to see why this has been the case.
 
Immediately I realise Clitheroe is immensely likeable – not just as the underdog competing in an event long dominated by an endless production line of superb Kenyan and Ethiopian runners – but because she is as tough as she seems slight, as smart as she is shy, modest but not lacking in ambition. We speak just days after Clitheroe impressed onlookers at the Great North Run – during her rest week no less – to discuss exactly how an athlete manages to peak at thirty-seven years of age.
 
“I’ve been crawling around,” she laments, in jest more than grievance. “I’m feeling a bit sore. A half marathon is always a bit of a shock to the legs but it’s great timing for my rest week. I’m really pleased because I didn’t have much of an opportunity to do any specific half-marathon training.”

Clitheroe’s suffering achieved her a fifth place finish at the Great North Run – an exceptional achievement for a veteran athlete primarily concerned with track events. Her participation was all part of a long-term training plan tapered towards the London 2012 Olympics.

In typically humble fashion, Clitheroe jokingly explains how “making the team” would be the endgame to a satisfactory London Games. Joking aside, the fact remains that she cut the figure of an athlete falling perennially short of a podium finish in her early career; 14 years of relentless training provided her with a solitary Commonwealth bronze medal to parade.

Yet victory at the European Indoor Championships earlier this year presented Clitheroe with an entirely new perspective –gold in front of Paris’ Palais Omnisports de Paris Bercy offered her a vista point from the summit the podium. Holding off Russia’s Olesya Syreva by three hundredths of a second, the feeling would have been understandably alien. However, the dramatic win meant that the late bloomer of British athletics had now been on both sides of the fence; she had played the part of gutsy challenger and could now savour being a celebrated champion.

“It gave me confidence,” Clitheroe explains, reflecting on her remarkable triumph. “It was a fantastic moment for me, and for everyone that has supported me throughout my career.

“It changed my expectations, but you always want to win medals as an athlete. It’s very difficult, particularly on a global scale, but the likes of Mo [Farah] are showing us that it can be done.
 
“I have ideas of where I’d like to be next year; I think about being at the Olympics in the final. Obviously you want to be on the podium if you can be, but I have personal goals of running faster and being more competitive.”

Whilst her belated victory may seem perfectly timed ahead of a home Olympics next year, the fact remains that for the past two years Clitheroe has been provided with barely enough to keep her in running shoes. She remained financially dependant on her husband, Neil, after her Lottery funding was withdrawn two years ago, but financial constraints would prove to be another passable obstacle for the athletics veteran

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Training at high altitudes provides a major boost for British athletes – scientifically speaking, the increased red blood count enables the body to carry oxygen more efficiently - but until recently such opportunities were not viable for the Preston Harriers competitor.

“It was difficult financially but I’m glad I kept it going,” Clitheroe muses in typically resolute fashion.

“The difference this time was being in Kenya, which was even higher than I’d been before, and doing it for a prolonged period of time. When I’ve been before to Albuquerque or South Africa, it’s been for four or five weeks at a time. Before I never had the opportunity or the finances to spend so much time abroad, but it’s great that UKA and the London Marathon have put the money forward to let me go on it.”

Whilst her altitude training is now subsidised, her thrilling victory in Paris was still not enough to restore her Lottery funding, with UK Athletics head coach Charles van Commenee explaining that she would only be reconsidered if she “indicate[s] she is capable of the top eight in the Olympics.”

Clitheroe - who will be at the Aviva Athletics Roadshow this weekend - counters by suggesting that when London 2012 arrives, if she can “hang on for as long as possible, then you never know,” confirming that “the top 8 is a major target, realistically.”
 
Van Commenee’s comments illustrate a catch-22 situation for so many British athletes; to acquire funding one must display Olympic-standard ability, but many athletes first require the funding in order to train to such a standard. Nevertheless, in the absence of adequate financial support, Clitheroe compensates with an unyielding determination and unwavering commitment to her daily routine.
 
“I’d have to be pretty sick to miss a training session,” she explains. “I’ve got a plan and I stick to it; once it’s written down, I’m certain to stick to it and not miss a thing. I’m not an exception; I think that is probably the case for most athletes at such an elite level.
 
“You spend a lot of time thinking about what the other competitors are doing, and I bet they are not sat around doing nothing. What is the point in me doing it if I’m not going to do it properly? That’s my job.”

Aviva has been a proud supporter of British athletes since 1999. To find out more about the Aviva Athletics Road-show, go to aviva.co.uk/athletics or follow us on Twitter @AvivaAthletics

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