ZOEY Clark has spent her career to this point flying under the radar somewhat. The 400m runner from Aberdeen was part of Team Scotland at Glasgow 2014 and has collected a relay gold at the European Under-23 Championships two years ago but with the likes of Laura Muir, Lynsey Sharp and Eilidh Doyle grabbing the majority of the headlines, Clark has been allowed to get on with things without being disturbed or distracted by much media attention.
It was just how she liked it.
Clark better get used to being in the spotlight though because in the past few weeks the 22 year-old from Aberdeen has thrust herself into the public’s consciousness with a storming run of 51.84 seconds at a meet in Geneva.
Her time slashed almost three-quarters of a second off of her personal best and shot her to the top of the British rankings, a place that Clark admits feels slight alien.
“I’m not a big social media fan so that’s why I’m not on Twitter and things and since I’m up in Aberdeen, I can hide from a lot of the talk which is good because it means that I can just get on with my training,” she says. “But I have noticed that the run I did the other week has started to turn some heads. It’s a pretty good feeling to be at the top of the British rankings although it does seem a bit bizarre to me.
“I realise that it might add a bit of pressure but I’ve not thought too much about that.”
Clark’s impressive form means that far more people are sitting up and paying attention to the Scot than have in the past and her run ensures that she goes into next weekend’s World Championships Team Trials in Birmingham with the very real possibility of gaining selection for her first global major championship.
Having already secured the qualifying time, all Clark needs to do to guarantee selection for the World Championships, which take place in London in August, is finish in the top two in the 400m final.
The Scot knows she has a target on her back that has never been there before but despite the heightened expectations, she is feeling good about the championships.
“I’m feeling quite confident actually,” she says. “In previous years, I’ve not run all that well at the trials but I know that I’m in really good form right now so I’m excited for it. I feel like it’s a really good opportunity for me get automatic qualification for the Worlds which would be amazing.”
It has been a busy time for Clark recently; earlier this week, she graduated with a first class undergraduate masters degree in chemical engineering from Aberdeen University and she admits to feeling a sense of relief that her studies are now finished and she can now concentrate on having the best summer of her athletics career to date.
Clark has not always aspired to be a runner though; as a child, she did “a bit of everything” and it wasn’t until a teacher at school suggested that she try athletics that she found she had a real talent for it. In her mid-teens, she began working with Aberdeen-based coach Eddie McKenna and since that day, the pair have forged a hugely successful partnership.
Things have not always been plain sailing for Clark though; her performance at Glasgow 2014 as part of the 4x400m relay team was, she admits, severely disappointing but, as the best athletes always do, she has used that setback as a positive influence.
“I look back at the Commonwealth Games as a total learning experience,” she explains. “That was the biggest competition that I’d ever been to and I put too much pressure on myself and so didn’t run the race the way I normally would.
“Looking back, it’s not necessarily a bad memory although it is still a bit painful but I do think it was a positive thing because you always learn more from the races that you do badly in than the races in which you do well. And I’ve progressed so much since then.”
Qualification for this summer’s World Championships may be Clark’s short-term objective but with the 2018 Commonwealth Games now less than 10 months away, the Scot already has the Gold Coast in the back of her mind.
And with her new-found status as British No 1, the Tokyo Olympic Games now feel like an eminently realistic possibility too.
“I still need to qualify but if I do get selected for Gold Coast, I’m so excited about being there because I’ve come on so much so it wouldn’t just be a case of turning up, I’ll hopefully be going there to be competitive.
“This year, I’m taking a year out to focus on athletics full-time. I’m going to give myself this year and see how being a full-time athlete suits me – hopefully it will go well.”
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