Unless you deem Jake a liar this is what he has relayed as far as his thinking. He was already leaning this direction in pre-season planning, and it was further affirmed with how exhausting CG were mentally and physically. Ultimately, athletes make choices and have an understanding of their limits. It's why Jakob didn't run the 3,000 in Monaco, where he could've gone after 7:22-7:25 possibly. And we'll see if he races Lausanne or opts to rest for the DL Final after a busy European Champs (seems like he is palnning on resting for now).
“Even in March when we were planning the season out we knew it was going to be pretty tough to do fifteen worlds, fifteen Comms, fifteen Europeans,” Wightman told reporters at a press conference here today. He added: “Before Eugene I thought three championships was easy. Not easy. As soon as Eugene happened (it was) so tough to come back.”
He was physically tired from three rounds at Worlds then an exhausting 1500m final at Commonwealths only 18 days later where he lost ground in the final 200 meters and had to settle for third behind Australia’s Oliver Hoare and Kenya’s Timothy Cheruiyot.
“My Commonwealths was probably the least enjoyable champs I’ve ever had,” he said.
But stepping down for the 800m, where he has a personal best of 1:44.18 from nearly two years ago, Wightman feels newly energized if a little fearful. He’s never raced in the 800m at a high-level championships.
“Coming here to do the 800 is just something I’m actually excited to do,” Wightman said. “I hope it will be all right. It’s an unknown. I’ve never actually done an 800 championship. I want to show I can be as competitive over eight as fifteen. I think if I were to do a fifteen here I wouldn’t have come. So, 800 meters is just a real re-fresh. I’m like, I’m actually looking forward to racing again.”