Georgia Bell told world record achievable as she considers returning to work

Georgia Bell, the new British 1500m record-holder, has been told that even a world record is not impossible ahead of deciding whether to extend her work sabbatical following a fairytale Olympic bronze medal.

The 30-year-old, who only returned to serious training in November 2022 after getting back into running during lockdown, delivered one of the stories of the entire Olympics on Saturday night by first holding onto the searing world record-pace in front of her and then sprinting to bronze.

For her Wigan coaches, Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows, it was one of three Olympic medals for their training group and, after Bell’s phenomenal progression over recent months, they are not even ruling out a tilt at Faith Kipyegon’s 3min 49.04sec world record.

Bell has improved her 1500m personal best since linking back up again with Meadows and Painter from 4min 16.21sec in August 2022 to now 3min 52.61sec.

She had initially combined her full-time work in cyber security with running but went on sabbatical from May through to the end of August after finishing fourth at the World Indoor Championship, even if that did mean turning down work last month when 8.5 million computers were impacted by a major global tech failure.

“She was furious,” said Painter. “She said, ‘I’m losing so much commission because I’m not in work’ – she was getting phone calls and had to deflect them to work colleagues.

“I think a big thing [in her improvement] is her not having to get up and work. The day after World Indoors, she got an early flight back down to London and was at her desk for 12pm. What a surreal comedown.

“But since May she has been able to not have to get up early, train when she needs to train, sleep when she needs to sleep and just focus on being an athlete and it makes a huge difference.

“She is 30, but Kelly Holmes was 34 when she did the double gold. And she is very lightly raced, she has had a lot of years out of the sport so her body is not hanging on like some people her age.”

Of the prospect of getting down a further 3.6 seconds to the world 1500m record, Meadows, herself a former World and European medallist, said: “3:52.6. I know 3:49.0 is a little bit in front of that but never say never for anything.”

Painter had previously coached Bell in her early twenties and laughs when he recalls his first impressions. “We were coaching a girl called Leah Barrow at Birmingham University and she was at the same uni,” says Painter. “She was doing a few sessions with her and then she said, ‘Can I join in?’ The first time she came, I thought she was like a society girl, like Tamara Beckwith. Glamorous girl. But when I saw her run, I thought, ‘oh, all right’. She very quickly rose through the development but the next thing she said she was off to do a Masters in the States [in California].

“I was gutted when she went to America. You could just see something special. But you don’t want to hold people back. It’s their life and they do what they want to do.”

Painter would refer to Bell as “the one who got away” until she got back in touch after returning to some track races. “Her and her boyfriend were doing a lot of cycling,” says Painter. “During Covid he said, ‘Shall we go for a run’ and she said, ‘You don’t want to run with me’. He was like, ‘What do you mean?’ She said, ‘I used to be alright’. (Bell had won national age group medals when she was younger). They went for a run and she destroyed him. Since then, she started to do some programmes.”

Meadows initially thought that it might be too late and her subsequent progression – which saw her chop 10 seconds off her personal best in 2023 before another 14 seconds this year – has been “beyond our wildest dreams”.

“It’s great for Georgia because this is a lifetime’s work for Trev – he has been coaching for 24 years,” said Meadows, whose 25-strong elite group also includes 800m British record-holder and gold medallist Keely Hodgkinson and Lewis Davey, who helped Team GB to 4x400m relay bronze.

“We have made ourselves a team this year – the M11 Track Club,” added Meadows. “Georgia is very teamy and she trains with other world-class girls. She is a revelation. She thinks, ‘Well my team-mate can be an Olympic champion, I am doing similar sessions’. We compare her to Keely so much. She just responds to the stimulus that we give her.

“I said to her, exactly the same as I said to Keely before she went into the call room: ‘You have got every skillset. I would rather have your skillset than most other people in this race’. Use it. You will be very difficult to beat.”

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