Image source, Welsh AthleticsImage caption, Jake Heyward is the Welsh 1,500m record holder
ByGareth Bailey- Published19 minutes ago
In August 2022, Jake Heyward was lining up for the 1,500m final at the European Athletics Championships in Munich.
Only an inspired Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who ran a Championship record time, could beat him that day.
But masked underneath Heyward's silver medal-winning performance was a long and arduous battle with injury.
An ongoing foot problem saw the Welshman undergo double Achilles surgery in 2024.
The 27-year-old would spend nearly two years on the sidelines before he could run again.
Fast forward to January 2026 and Heyward would restart his athletics career.
Six months on, he has set a new one-mile Welsh record and will represent his country in that same event at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
"It's been a long journey; most people never come back to the sport after one Achilles surgery, let alone two," Heyward told BBC Sport Wales.
"I couldn't run for 20 months and I started running again in January, so I've only been running five or six months.
"In the beginning it was couch to 5km type stuff, so those people out there doing Park Runs know exactly what that feels like!
"To get back to this level quite quickly is really encouraging, and every single month that I've got training I'm only getting fitter, so I'm super excited."
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Heyward has spent a lot of his career managing injuries and pain.
He competed at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics, finishing ninth, but the effects of his injuries were all too clear.
"When you're in the Olympic final but you're thinking, 'When can I put my spikes on in this call room because I'm in so much pain and day to day, I can barely walk', it's not a nice feeling," he recalled.
"Other athletes are thinking, 'Okay I'm going to make my move here and do this'.
"They're super fluid and relaxed, whereas I was just in so much pain that I was thinking, 'Am I going to be able to get through this in one piece?'
"It was really difficult, not just the physical stress and ailment of it, but the mental stress of it; it's a lot to carry."
Heyward says the experiences have helped him to grow as a person.
"I think I'm a better athlete and person because of it," he added. "I'm mentally tough, I got through it and I'm really excited for the future."
Heyward also holds the Welsh 1,500m record, which he set with a three-minute 31.08-second run at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, enough to finish fifth.
Four years on, he will put on the Cymru vest again, this time in the mile race, which was last run in the 1966 Commonwealths in Kingston, Jamaica and replaces the 1,500m event in Glasgow.
His new Welsh record mark of three minutes 46.73 seconds, set in this weekend's London Diamond League event, bodes well for the competition in Glasgow.
Organisers say the Commonwealth Mile - the equivalent of 1,609m - is a tribute to 'The Miracle Mile' run at the 1954 staging in Vancouver.
On that occasion, England's Roger Bannister - two months after becoming the first athlete to run a sub-four minute mile - beat Australian John Landy, both dipping under that four-minute barrier.
Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Jake Heyward won silver in the 1,500m at the 2022 European Athletics Championships
Heyward 2.0
Heyward is now coaching himself as he aims to get back to his best.
"I was blessed to have a very good coach in Mark Rowland and I learned a lot from my time there," he explained.
"He did a really good job with me, actually managing injuries, but when I took my time away I realised I needed to heal mentally as well as physically.
"For me that meant stepping away from the sport, moving back home, being around my family, being back in Wales, and I think that's given me a new perspective and a new lease of life."
Heyward says it feels like a new beginning for him.
"I genuinely feel like it's the start of my career now because I think from my perspective, people have always been like, 'Oh Jake has the ability to do certain things', but I was always carrying this burden of this huge bone deformity on my heel," he said.
"I couldn't push off my foot properly, I was managing sessions, changing the way I was running, and I was never really able to get the best out of myself because of it."
While he continues to move back towards his best, Heyward is keeping realistic expectations of his 'new' self.
"It's so easy to compare yourself to how a session felt when you were in peak condition," he continued.
"You have to be very confident in your own ability and also trust the process.
"I think when you're patient, and you listen to your body, and you allow it to come to you, that's when the results come."
With a 3:32.09 run in Nancy at the start of July, Heyward was just one second off his personal best in the 1,500m event.
That run was inside the standard for August's European Championships in Birmingham, though he will have to wait to see whether he is selected by the British team after finishing second at the UK Athletics Championships in June.
Heyward said his performance at the UK Championships was bittersweet: "I came to win and was a little bit short of it.
"In the bigger picture it's incredible to be able to put a pair of spikes on, be healthy and be challenging for the win.
"It's pleasing that I can still come back into this environment and run a fast lap because the way my training has been going I haven't done much of that work yet.
"It's really exciting going into the Commonwealth Games.
"It's one of the first times I've gone into a race and really just enjoyed the whole thing; that's really good."
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So what does a dream 2026 look like for Jake Heyward?
"The first thing is being in that Commonwealth Games team. Standing on the start line and representing Wales is a massive moment alone," he said.
"The fact that I could come back for the Commonwealth Games was a huge motivating factor for me.
"Representing Wales is such a big honour and I'm so passionate to be Welsh, and the fact you only get to do it once every four years means so much to me.
"But I don't train my backside off to just be on the start, so I'm going to do everything I can to put myself in contention for a win.
"How that looks, time will tell, but I'm going to make sure I'm ready to be good in a kick, to be ready so nobody can really run away from me and then it just all comes down to running good tactics on the day."
