18-07-2025
Jake Wightman: I had to split with dad to save our relationship
To mark perhaps the most wonderful father-and-son moment in the history of sport, Jake Wightman bought his dad, Geoff, a rather lovely gift.
It was a vintage Omega stopwatch, engraved with a message of thanks and set at three minutes and 29 seconds; the time Wightman had clocked in Eugene in July 2022 when he claimed the world 1,500m title by beating the seemingly indomitable Jakob Ingebrigtsen.
It was an extraordinary performance, and one that has sparked a resurgence in British middle-distance running, with the global gold medals that followed for Josh Kerr and Keely Hodgkinson. And it was all the more remarkable for the fact that Geoff was providing commentary of the race as the stadium announcer.
He somehow maintained his composure as his son held off the brilliant Norwegian in those final strides but he did then share his joy with a Hayward Field crowd wondering why the guy with the microphone was on the big screen. 'Because that's my son, I coach him, and he's the world champion,' he proudly declared.
In a cafe in West Didsbury, Manchester, it is Jake's voice that is now cracking a little with emotion, as he reflects not only on the unique nature of that victory but the fact that, a few months ago, he told Geoff that he no longer wanted to be coached by him.
Wightman announced their professional separation after 15 years as coach and athlete in a brief statement in March. He expressed his gratitude for his father's selfless dedication. 'Thank you dad,' he wrote. But he also said there was a need for them to part.
Four months on and this smart, articulate 31-year-old is now prepared to discuss the split in more detail. He describes an enduring sense of guilt. 'It was a big part of my dad's life, just gone,' he says. But it was a professional decision that was also motivated by a desire to protect a relationship with his 64-year-old father. Wightman feared it was at breaking point, such was the pressure created by a string of injury problems that had dogged him since rising to the top of the podium.
Father-son coaching relationships are not uncommon; especially in athletics. Lord Coe was guided to two Olympic 1,500m titles by his dad, Peter. They had their moments: Peter famously told his son that he had run like a 'c**t' when he lost the Olympic 800m final in Moscow to Steve Ovett, with his son responding by running a more tactically-astute race in the 1,500m final that followed. But the bond between the two men remained strong right up until Peter's death, aged 88, in 2008. Even now it is rare for a conversation with Coe not to include a reference to the 'old man'.
Ingebrigtsen was coached to Olympic 1,500m gold in 2021 by his father, Gjert. But in a courtroom in Norway this year we witnessed the disintegration of their relationship. During a trial that concluded with Gjert receiving a suspended prison sentence for assaulting his daughter, Jakob referred to Gjert only as 'the defendant'. It was desperately sad.
By the end, had Wightman fallen out with his father? 'No,' he says. 'But we would have.
'Most parent-child athlete-coach relationships tend to end in one of two ways: either they stay with them their whole career and it's all happy and great, or it ends with people never speaking to their parents again, because it ends so badly.
'I know that happens, especially with fathers and sons, because it's probably less emotional. We're not so good at talking things through. But it can become really tough to change the dynamic from a father telling their kid what to do, to you getting to a point where you are in your late 20s, maybe 30, and your dad's still expecting you to oblige and follow.
'I have my own opinions and I've done a lot in the sport, so there were clashes. I might say I don't agree with something and he can be very stubborn as well.'
The clashes coincided with those injury setbacks. Wightman has been terribly unlucky since Eugene. The 2023 season was a write off after initially injuring an ankle, while 2024 was marked by a torn hamstring he suffered days before he was due to head to Paris for the Olympic Games. 'I was devastated,' he says. 'The only race I managed to watch was Keely's.
'Everything is great between coaches and athletes when stuff's going well. But I would say we had more arguments than we'd maybe ever had, and it was getting to the point where I was seeing tiny little things that I didn't agree with, and it was angering and frustrating me in a way I don't think it would have if my coach wasn't also my dad.
'There's pressure for me but there's also a lot of pressure for him as a coach when stuff's not going right, and I maybe didn't acknowledge that he also wasn't enjoying that bit. I hate being injured but he hates me being injured too.'
During a training camp in Flagstaff, Arizona, last December, Wightman started to feel discomfort in a knee. By the time he arrived in Boston in February for an indoor meet, he was not sure his body could withstand the physical demands of a race.
Wightman was right to withdraw. It turned out he needed surgery. But again he clashed with his father. 'I think my dad found it hard to realise that my body was no longer how it used to be when I was younger,' he says. 'We argued about it, and that was the hard bit. At that point it didn't end that amicably.'
He said it was his suggestion to call time on their partnership. 'But my dad would have probably said the same thing at the same time,' he says.
Even so, there is remorse. 'I feel bad that I was with him for 15 years, and then all of a sudden, within a week, I've gone from speaking to him about all my training to him not having any idea what I'm doing.
'Honestly, I felt so guilty when it happened. But I also think it was probably a bit of a relief for him in some ways; to have to not go through the clashes and not have the pressure of getting me back to the point where we feel like we need to get to.'
Wightman has moved north with his girlfriend, the former Irish international runner Georgie Hartigan, partly for a change of scenery and also to live close to his physiotherapist. Hartigan's dad, John — like Geoff once a leading distance runner — is now overseeing his coaching even if he says they are following many of Geoff's old training programmes. John had already been assisting with some of the sessions.
'I'd asked John to help just because dad and I had been arguing so much,' Wightman says. 'He was good for calming the situation a bit.'
Now Wightman just wants Geoff to be his dad again; the dad he says his siblings will know better than he does. 'I think they've probably had a better relationship with him because there wasn't this other stuff in the way,' he says. 'I haven't needed him as a dad for so long. The relationship has just been about sport, and my mum [Susan, a former Olympic marathon runner] would get caught in the middle.
'Now there is less pressure. He came up recently to swap over a couple of beds, and it all felt easier. There's that space now. I feel like I'll be able to go home this Christmas and have a nice time.'
Wightman says Geoff has not renewed his coaching licence, even though he has guided the careers of other leading athletes. He would like him to reconsider.'I hope he does go back to it because he's a good coach. He could be tough but what he did for me made me a world champion.'
Which is precisely why he bought him the 1960s stopwatch. 'I got it for him for Christmas and I look back and think I'm very glad I did, because it's a symbol not just of that summer but of the whole time I was coached by him,' he says.
'Eugene was the highlight of my time being coached by my dad, and I'm pleased I've acknowledged how good a job he did to get me to that point. I also wouldn't have wanted anyone else to have done that with me. I will always be thankful for what he's done for my career.'
He very much hopes it is a career that is finally back on track. 'This sport can be cruel,' he says, before revealing how he had even worn his Team GB kit to watch the opening ceremony of last year's Games from his training camp in St Moritz. 'I tore my hamstring in the last rep of the last session before I was due to go to Paris.'
He suspects the 2022 season, with the World Championships followed by the Commonwealth Games and European Championships (he won medals at all three), took too great a toll on his body.
This month, however, he followed a solid performance in the mile at the Prefontaine Classic, in a personal-best time, with victory over 800m, in 1:44.71, in Italy last Sunday.
On Sunday he goes again, over 1,500m at the Novuna London Athletics Meet; three years to the day since that stunning victory in Eugene. Geoff will be there, but this time only as stadium announcer. 'It's good that he's still involved with the sport,' his son says. 'It will be nice to see him.'
