Jason Smyth not rushing the need for speed in 2021

Jason Smyth: 20 gold medals at major para athletics events. Picture: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

In any normal year he’d be well into the swing of it by now, his racing instincts fully sharpened as we hurtle into mid-summer. But for Jason Smyth a slower start in 2021 might ultimately mean a faster finish.

That’s what the five-time Paralympic gold medallist is hoping as the countdown continues to this year’s Games in Tokyo, which begin on August 24. Smyth turned 34 on Sunday and has ruled the world in the T13 category (for partially sighted athletes) for the last 15 years, but there’s a question mark around his form this year given he has yet to race. The Derry sprinter says that’s all part of the plan.

“With the way this last year has been, a lot of changes, restrictions on travel and training, everything has been geared towards trying to run fast when I need to, which is the end of August,” he says. “I’m not trying to rush or force things. I’m happy with where things are at.”

He’ll open his season in Belfast this weekend, seven weeks before the big dance in Tokyo, the event around which his world orbits.

It may be 10 years since he ran his 100m personal best of 10.22 but Smyth’s dominance has yet to wane. He has racked up 20 gold medals at major para athletics championships in what remains one of the most underrated careers in Irish sport.

“If the likes of that had happened for an Olympic athlete, I think it would be very different in what we know about them and the recognition, everything that comes with it,” he says.

“We don’t get the same recognition and awareness. That being said, it has improved a lot, there’s no doubt about that. Things just don’t change overnight and there is a responsibility on athletes and the success that we have to try and change that awareness and that recognition.”

In Tokyo Smyth will only be able to chase victory in one event given the T13 200m has been dropped from the programme, but 100m gold remains not so much his ambition as his intention.

“That’s where the target is and the target will always be. I don’t really think about anything else.”

He believes his vast experience will be useful against some of the younger generation of sprinters in his category, given the strict procedures in place that will allow the event to happen, which require athletes to stay in their rooms much of the time, undergo daily Covid-19 screening and avoid interaction with others.

“There’s going to be a huge mental aspect to being able to prepare and keep focused and not overthink things,” he says. 

“I’ve been continually improving and building over this last number of years and over the next two months it’s (about) fine-tuning and really sharpening up. And hopefully that comes together nicely at the end of August.”

- Jason Smyth was speaking at the launch of the second video in Allianz’s Courage Chronicles series. Earlier this year Allianz announced an eight-year worldwide partnership with the Olympic and Paralympic Movements, building on a global collaboration with the Paralympic Movement since 2006. For more information go to www.allianz.com