BETH DOBBIN regularly allows herself to contemplate the devastation she will feel if she is not in Tokyo for the Olympic Games in two months time.
In fact, she almost enjoys imagining the feelings of disappointment.
It may be a slightly unorthodox method of motivation but Scotland’s top sprinter is certain it’s one that works for her.
“I’m the type of athlete who does well under pressure so I allow myself to think about not making it to Tokyo and how that would feel. Those thoughts keep me on my game,” she says.
“I make myself think about the dread I’d feel if I didn’t make the team and that keeps me pushing hard in training.
“You can be motivated by wanting good things to happen but you can also be motivated by wanting to avoid the bad things and I’m the latter.
“I’ve been in situations in my career when things have gone so badly and it’s the worst feeling in the world so in training, I remind myself that I never want to feel like that again.”
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The thought of missing out on a place in Team GB for the Olympics ensures Dobbin never cuts a corner nor takes a shortcut in training. It is a method that has served her well to date and ensured she emerged from over a year of competitive inactivity in excellent shape.
A fortnight ago, the 200m Scottish record holder made her first outdoor appearance since the 2019 World Championships and was pleasantly surprised to clock 23.06 seconds at a race in Italy, the same season-opener time as she ran two years ago, in the aftermath of which she went on to run a personal best.
Her performance was, she admits, a pleasant surprise, particularly having suffered from almost crippling nerves in her only indoor race of the year; a 400m in February.
“I’m so glad I did that 400m a couple of months ago which I never thought I’d be saying because it was a terrible race from me.
“The nerves I felt before that race were almost overwhelming. I was feeling sick with nerves and I couldn’t control it. I think it was because it had just been so long since I’d raced,” the Loughborough-based Scot says.
“But then after that run, I felt completely different.
“All of last year, when I was training, I wasn’t even thinking about racing but after that race, everything changed. I felt like I’d been reminded why I was going into training every day and so that race was the best thing I could have done.
“Going into the race in Italy a couple of weeks ago, I was nervous but nothing like I’d felt in February and because of everything over the past year, I’d mentally prepared myself to be a bit slower than usual.
“But I was a couple of tenths quicker than I’d expected and in sprinting, a couple of tenths is massive. So I was really pleased.”
Dobbin’s next outing is at this weekend’s European Athletics Team Championships in Silesia, Poland, where GB will face teams from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Ukraine in the two-day fixture.
Dobbin will be joined in Silesia by fellow Scots Jake Wightman, who will race the 800m, Erin Wallace in the 1500m and Chris Bennett in the hammer, with the sprinter racing the 200m, as well as the 4x100m relay.
This weekend’s event will be an important stepping-stone towards the British Olympics Trials next month, the results of which will decide who grabs a seat on the plane to Tokyo.
With the Olympics for so long nothing more than a distant prospect, Dobbin admits it feels somewhat surreal that it is now within touching distance.
But, as she is well aware, her Olympic dreams could be shattered if she doesn’t perform at her best at the trials, which will see her up against, amongst others, world 200m champion Dina Asher-Smith.
Dobbin, the 2018 British champion, knows she has what it takes to make the team for Tokyo, but she is also well aware of how fine the margins are.
With missing out on a spot at the Olympics likely to impact more than just her summer plans, the pressure is intense but Dobbin is embracing that weight as she targets her Olympic debut.
“There are so many athletes running very similar times so it really comes down to who does it on the day at the trials. Everything might be geared towards Tokyo but actually, none of us are there yet; you have to make sure things go to plan at the trials first. Something could easily go wrong on the day and that’s it all over; nothing is a given,” she says.
“The nerves at British Champs are on another level because there’s so much riding on it.
“Whether or not you get to the Olympics changes your entire life. For me, if I don’t get there, it’ll be heartbreaking in itself but then there’s the knock-on effect which will probably see me lose my funding, my contracts and then that makes things in future seasons so much harder because I’ll be back working a full-time job.
“People don’t always realise quite how much is riding on that one weekend.”
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