Wightman sought a refresh this year, making the difficult decision to end his coaching partnership with father Geoff, who was commentating inside the stadium when his son outlasted Jakob Ingebrigtsen to win gold in Eugene.
In what has been a year of significant change away from the track, Wightman began working with his partner Georgie’s father, John Hartigan, and relocated to Manchester to be closer to his physiotherapist.
The only major change in terms of his training, he says, has been to respect his body more.
“Honestly, it has been a very, very bleak couple of years for me. A lot of times I doubted if could make it back to this level,” Wightman said.
“I have made some huge changes in my life this year. I want to thank my coaching team and my dad for getting me to this point in the first place. He did all the hard work bringing me to this level.”
He added: “When you get that close you cannot help but think ‘what if I had tried a bit more?’ But I left everything out there.”
Former Olympic long jump champion Greg Rutherford said on BBC TV: “Everybody suffers with injuries in their careers. Jake Wightman shows that you can come back from it and the good guys do still win medals.
“For anybody young watching this, suffering with something difficult, it shows that you can push through.”
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