Jo Pavey received the first global medal of her career – 10 years late – on this day in 2017 after it was confirmed she would be upgraded to 10,000 metres bronze at the 2007 World Championships.
Pavey, then 43, was thrilled, but said the news she had been promoted from fourth place at the Osaka championships left a “bittersweet” taste after world governing body the IAAF announced Turkish silver medallist Elvan Abeylegesse had been disqualified for doping.
Pavey told the BBC: “It is frustrating. I am thrilled with the news, but it is kind of bittersweet because when I think back to those championships I was running as hard as I could, I had got myself in the best shape and it was a hot and humid day. I was in a medal position right until the line, but couldn’t hold on.
“Instead of being a moment where I was thrilled at getting my first medal, I was lying on the track feeling totally despondent and frustrated. I felt that I had let everyone down.”
Pavey had an idea the upgrade was coming, with the news emerging in 2015 that Abeylegesse was among the athletes under investigation for doping after samples from the 2005 and 2007 World Championships were retested.
The 2014 European champion added on BBC Radio 5 Live: “I had a few years in the prime of my career where I kept just missing out on medals and I almost had to go back to the drawing board and think how I could find that extra.
“How I could not keep getting it just a bit wrong on the day.
“Now I look back and I think about the other medals I might have had and actually I was doing a lot of things right, but with the cheats out there it does make it so much more difficult and so frustrating.”
Abeylegesse’s disqualification meant American Kara Goucher, who passed Pavey on the home straight in Osaka, was upgraded to silver.
Pavey went on to become the first British track athlete to compete in five Olympic games at Rio 2016. She finished 15th in the 10,000m.
