The British Indoor 1500m champion on a different mindset that has brought big changes
“I was standing on the start line knowing that I hadn’t worked to the best of my ability to be in the best shape at that time, and I never wanted that feeling again,” says Ellie Baker, recalling the moment her mindset shifted.
It was 2020, and the 24-year-old admits she hadn’t dealt well with lockdown. “I’m very much motivated by competition and if I don’t have any goals to aim for, then I’m like, ‘What am I training for? What is this all towards?’,” she says. “I think I got a little bit lazy because I didn’t really know what was going on and I just let a few things go. I got so unfit over that period of time and I missed an opportunity because there were races, and I was quite annoyed at myself for not keeping on it.
“It was a blessing in disguise, really, because I feel like I had to go through that to make a decision. I was always there or thereabouts, but I wanted to make that next break. I was fed up with coming second or just missing out.”
Baker sat down with her brother at the end of that season and told him she wanted to make her mark. They agreed to create a plan to ensure she was on top of everything and that no stone would be left unturned. Their first aim was to get selected for the 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships, where she finished fourth in the 800m.
British Indoor Champion 🥇
Wow! A simply stunning run from @EllieBaker1998 as she breaks Zola Budd’s 1500m championships record going back to 1986 🔥
She clocks 4:06.73 and claims her maiden British title in the process 💥 pic.twitter.com/r1O1Pgb6fo
— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) February 19, 2023
“It was a massive mindset change more than anything,” says the Shaftesbury Barnet athlete. “Since that day I’ve given absolutely everything.”
Weekly accountability meetings kept Baker in check and her times got quicker. In 2021 she made a breakthrough, going sub-two minutes for the first time over 800m (1:59.54) and taking over eight seconds off her 1500m best (4:06.54). In 2022 she went even faster, running 1:59.52 and 4:04.90. In addition, she finished eighth in the final of the European Championships 1500m and reached the semi-finals of the World Athletics Championships over 800m.
That she performed so well in 2022 is credit to her hard work after an injury put paid to the previous winter’s training. This winter has been uninterrupted and everything clicked with 1500m gold at the UK Athletics Indoor Championships in a championship record (4:06.73).
Her 11th-place finish in the 1500m final at the European Indoor Championships left Baker disappointed, but she went with the pace and believed she could win a medal.
In a memorable era for British middle distance running, Baker is in the fortunate position that she can turn her hand to the 800m and the 1500m.
“My coach [Jon Bigg] very much wants me to do both,” she says. “He thinks I can be a very good 1500m runner. My endurance comes quite naturally to me, but I’ve also got natural speed.
“I preferred the speedier stuff growing up and I’ve done a little bit more of that, but when we’ve done longer sessions I’ve actually fared quite well. We hadn’t done many sessions to run that time (4:04.90) last summer, so he was excited by that, especially when I’d had the winter injured.
“I just can’t believe that! I didn’t expect it.” @EllieBaker1998 was in shock after she broke a 37-year-old British indoor 1500m champs record, held by Zola Budd, after clocking 4:06.73 in Birmingham 🤯
Plus won a maiden national title in the process 🔥
🎙️ @euancrumley pic.twitter.com/86eUKo7P9J
— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) February 19, 2023
“I think that they go hand in hand, and if you’re going to run a solid 1500m you’re going to run a solid 800m, and vice versa. With the middle distance being so stacked in Britain at the minute, if you can give yourself as much opportunity as possible, then that’s a smart move.”
Two years on from her first accountability meeting, Baker has no regrets.
“I’ve had to stay resilient and do it my way,” she says of her career to date. “Lockdown gave me the kick I needed. Now I will always be able to stand on the start line and know that I’ve put everything into it and whatever happens, happens, because I’ve got confidence in the work I’ve put in.”
If you could choose one person to train/compete with, past or present, who would it be and why?
Kelly Holmes did the 800m and 1500m so that would be really cool, but Seb Coe and Steve Ovett’s training would have been really cool to see too. I feel like they did such different things but both had success.
They’re the people I look up to because they’re the people who have done what I’m trying to do in the two events, so they’re the ones who’d inspire me.
» This is an excerpt from an interview that appeared in the March issue of AW, which you can read here
