Ben Pattison starting to dream big after comeback from injury

Ben Pattison was stepping into the unknown when he arrived in Tokyo but after a reassuring opening 800m run, he is starting to dream big.

The Frimley runner won a World Championship bronze two years ago in Budapest but had his season wrecked by injury, suffering a stress fracture in his thigh bone.

That seemed to have cleared up just in time for these World Championships in Japan, but a runner who relies on confidence came in with little.

After an impressive run in his heat though, finishing second in 1:46.51 to ease into the semi-finals, Pattison is starting to believe in what he can achieve.

He said: “It was a lot easier than I expected. It was a really good race, and things are coming into place really nicely.

“I put so much work in just to get here. I feel like even though I had probably six months less than a normal year to work hard, I probably worked just as hard.

“This was my goal the whole time of year, and to be honest, a lot of the season I was probably being very optimistic that I was going to be here

“I'd say probably all of this year, the confidence has been quite low. I've not had the training to kind of back it up, and I'm an athlete that likes to work hard to build my confidence, but I've just had to kind of look at this season from a different point of view, but I'm not here just to be happy to be here, I'm here to do a job still, and that's my intention.”

That job starts in Thursday’s semi-finals, with fellow Brit Max Burgin having also progressed, while Olympic champion, Emmanuel Wanyonyi, and defending world champion, Marco Arop, are among the favourites for the podium.

Pattison showed two years ago that when he is on form, he can compete with the very best, even if preparation this season has made it tough to find that form.

But after working so hard to make it to Tokyo, he had no intention of letting the chance slip through his fingers in the heat.

He explained: “I thought that last hundred, a lot of people would come past me.

“But I was just fighting for my life, thinking if anyone does come past, I need to make it hard for them.

“Me and my coach just kind of said, get in a good position. He knows I know how to race.

“As soon as they let me go to the front, I thought, cool, I'm here now. I don't want to do the work for anyone else, so I slowed it right down, make sure I'm cruising.

“I don't want to be leading them out, and then they will come past me. So I thought, if anyone wants to take it, they can, but they're going to have to go around me.”

After a year of playing catch-up, Pattison is enjoying leading from the front.

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