Thursday 4 October 2018 21:47, UK
Smashing records, setbacks, personal bests, exams and winning gold in front of 60,000 fans. It's been an extraordinary year for Imani Lansiquot.
The 20-year-old south Londoner and Sky Sports Scholar reflects on her debut senior campaign and overcoming her struggles off the track.
After 11 months of training, I can finally shut the door on the 2018 season - and what a year. It's been an opportunity to find my feet as a fresh senior athlete, and discover my path towards Tokyo 2020.
This time last year, I finished my season a little injured physically and mentally after the European U23 Championships. Fast forward a year and I've run a new PB, become the sixth fastest woman in Europe and lucky enough to share a European gold with the British relay quartet.
Although I'm really proud of my accomplishments so far, I'm even prouder of how much I have grown up and I am already looking forward towards what I can get better at next year.
It's important in sport to recognize that each year is different, no matter how good or bad the previous season was.
Therefore, the success of last season stays in the past, and I'm looking forward to re-focusing on everything I can improve on for the next few years, which unsurprisingly as a young athlete, is a long list of things!
The year began with finding a new coach, a new university degree and a new perspective on my career that had been tinged with success and failure. All the changes allowed me to come into the new year with a huge desire to learn my craft better and take small wins at every opportunity.
I used the indoor season to spend as much time learning as possible and building a solid, honest relationship with my new coach. I had never seen the 60m as a particular strength of mine, but to be a better athlete, I needed to challenge myself in uncomfortable situations and chose to race in more difficult races during the indoor campaign.
I was really happy to leave with a big indoor PB, but even happier to have re-discovered my competitive bravery and to have challenged myself.
The spring was difficult, mainly because of university work piling up and tough training. I've struggled with time management and I spoke to Head of Sky Scholars Tony Lester and we worked out a plan to organise myself allowing for minimal overlaps and optimum time for university work and training.
With my new timetable, the workload became easier to manage and I began to really appreciate having education as a catharsis away from the impending hype around the outdoor season.
After my summer exams, it was really fun to dedicate my time to the main athletics season.
This year was my first time traveling a lot for races, and so week by week I was in a different European town amongst different types of racers - learning my craft and achieving small wins.
The European qualification trial was the most important race of them all, and although I missed out on automatic qualification with fourth amongst the British girls, I felt like the lessons really gave me more motivation and a stronger sense of direction towards my next races.
I competed in the Olympic stadium for the first time at the Athletics World Cup and our relay win was a fantastic way to warm me up for the important London Diamond League event the following week - my last chance to qualify for the 100m at the Europeans.
I was so happy to finally race the race I knew I could and left the stadium with a brand new PB, and a few days later, selection for the Europeans.
I was so excited for my first senior championships and ready to learn. I set an expectation on myself to make the 100m final and I was so happy to make that with sixth.
I was also lucky enough to be selected in the strike four for the relay team. What an experience it was winning gold at a major championships - racing in front of 60,000 people is nothing short of mesmerizing, and although it was my first time racing a relay at a championships, I felt well drilled and believed in myself to not let the team down.
After Berlin, I took the opportunity to race whilst fit, as this was the longest I had managed to stay injury free. It was also a chance to race without the pressure of an upcoming championships. I realized how far I had come in my development, both mentally and physically.
Although we train for over 40 weeks for approximately two minutes of race time a year, the magic moments during the year made it all worth it. It didn't happen exactly to plan, but I was pleased to have stayed consistent enough to handle any failures, and allow them to point me in the right direction.
I have my incredible team around me to thank for that, my Dad, my coach, my medical team and of course Sky!
Looking ahead, I plan to build on the foundations built this year and hopefully be selected to race at next year's World Championships in Doha.
If this year is anything to go by, I'm sure it won't go exactly to plan, but in 2018 I learned that nothing in life really does, and that is okay! 2019 - I'm ready for you!
