Heptathlon talent has had to endure an injury nightmare over the past two years but, with the end in sight, she has been able to see the benefits of coping with adversity

It would be an understatement to say Niamh Emerson hasn’t enjoyed the best of luck in recent years. The 22-year-old had marked herself out as another British heptathlon star in the making when she won the world junior title in 2018, the same year in which she also landed Commonwealth bronze, before following it up with pentathlon silver behind Katarina Johnson-Thompson at the European Indoors in Glasgow in early 2019.

Just as her career was taking off, however, injury brought the girl from Derbyshire crashing to the ground.

Competing at the combined events competition in Gotzis, she partially tore the patella tendon in her knee while high jumping. It was an injury which ruled her out of the World Championships in Doha as she endured what was a 14-month rehab process. When Emerson did finally return to training, having refused to give up on her Olympic dream, a stress fracture to her foot earlier this year put paid to any hope of making it to Tokyo.

Another rehab journey is nearing its conclusion and, if things go well, next year’s World Championships and Commonwealth Games are her top targets.

“I’ve learned a lot in the last few months and I believe I’ve made more progress in that time than during the year-and-a-half when I was rehabbing my tendon,” she adds. “Mentally it’s been harder, because I’ve been so frustrated, but physically it’s been very different and more holistic. I’ve been doing things like pilates, joining all my muscles together and changing my technique.”

Here, Emerson picks out some of the key things which have helped her recovery.

Small things make a big difference

“I think the biggest thing that’s got me through this rehab is how much I’ve improved little things,” she says. “One of the things that I’m really holding on to is how much better my body works now. I’m doing drills and hurdle walkovers and things I’ve never been able to do before. Press-ups suddenly feel so different.

“My heptathlons from 2018 and 2019 were kind of just down to ability. I broke down because there wasn’t anything really holding everything together.

“The 2018 me would never do physio exercises because I thought ‘oh it’s all silly little exercises and I need to do big things like running fast’ but me, now, is more focused on the fact that I need to smash all these little muscles and do all these little foot exercises as well as things like my balance moves and pulling my shoulders back. All of these tiny little things, they make such a difference.

“I’m now the one down the gym who has their toe band out, doing sets of little toe curls and strengthening exercises, while people will be looking at me thinking ‘you’re so weird’.”

See time out as an opportunity to change

“I’ve been doing things to change my technique. Whereas before I’d just smash pool sessions for cardio, I’m now doing them to change how I run. I probably won’t be that fit when I get back but I’ll be very robust. Whereas last time I was super, super fit when I came back from my knee I wasn’t robust and obviously got injured again when the workload built up.

“My thought process of what you need to do to be a really good heptathlete, or really good at athletics, has changed so much in the last year-and-a-half.

“When you’re younger you just assume ‘I’m going to do this competition, this competition and this competition’ but now I realise it’s so hard.

“For example, when I watch Jess Ennis-Hill’s 2012 Olympic gold medal-winning competition, there’s so much emotion around it and there’s been so much emotion around the Olympics and I never understood that. I’m just realising everybody has so much hardship of injury that they have to deal with. I guess it’s just part of the process.”

Don’t look too far ahead

“I never looked too far ahead in my recovery and just focused on the mini goals,” she says. “I’ve just been so tunnel vision, focusing on all these little things that I have to do. If you do that, you then just come out the other end, whereas if I had sat down and thought ‘Oh my gosh, this is everything I’ve got to do’ then that is so overwhelming.”

Find the positive

“There are so many good things I’ve been able to get from this really rubbish year-and-a-half that will help my performance. It’s like the butterfly effect, where if one thing didn’t happen then all of these other things wouldn’t have happened,” she reflects.

“If I was to write down a list of all the things I wouldn’t have received if I hadn’t had to go through this it would be a long one. I feel completely different physically, and I’m just a completely different person, so that really motivates me and makes me really excited. Now I just have to be patient.”