| Hosts: Birmingham Dates: 28 July to 8 August |
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Jo Patterson would subscribe to the theory that, when channelled appropriately, there are few motivators more powerful than regret.
Without it she would not be back at the Commonwealth Games, 12 years on from her last appearance, now competing in a different sport.
Patterson was an ascending star at Delhi 2010. A 22-year-old 400m runner who competed in the individual event and made up one quarter of Northern Ireland’s exciting young relay team.
It was supposed to be all in front of her, but those Games proved to be the apex of her athletics career.
There is no dreadfully sad story of torment or injury, only a blunt illustration of the choices an athlete must make when weighing up a short-term career within sport against a long-term one outside it.
When the 2010 Commonwealths came around Patterson had just embarked on a medicine degree in Glasgow, and upon her return, the Ballymoney athlete soon realised she was no longer free to commit weekend and evenings to the track.
In a sport where a competitor’s peak tends to come early, these were the years in which Patterson had to make hay if she was to move her athletics career forward, but instead the running took a back seat.
“I never think I properly fulfilled my potential in athletics,” admits Patterson, now 34.
“It’s always a regret that I have. I love the track, even now a few times a year I’ll go to the track and do a random session because I do miss it.
“It’s happened now so I can’t really change things. At my age now, to be competitive at that level, I think when you hit 30 in athletics it does get really difficult and you do see your performance declining so I don’t think it’s something I could get back to at that level.”
‘I’ve still got time in cycling’
The realisation that she was unlikely to reignite her athletics career hit home, but the competitive spirit and desire to compete went nowhere.
There remained a craving to recreate that feeling of Delhi 2010; a feeling of the best years still being in front of her, of being an elite competitor on an upward curve.
It was that feeling that led Patterson into cycling, where she now finds herself once again representing Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Games.
“In cycling I look at the Olympic champions from the past, and actually if you look at the last number of Olympics the time trial champions are all in their mid-thirties,” she says.
“It motivates me to know that I’ve still got time in cycling and I’m still on that progression curve.
“A lot of that does come from the regret of not fulfilling my potential in athletics.”
It started on a night out with work-mates four years ago, during which the idea of signing up to a triathlon was floated.
Despite retrospective reservations Patterson followed through and quickly found that the cycling aspect in particular satisfied her yearning for a competitive challenge.
She bought a bike and soon caught the eye of a coach, who encouraged her to join a local triathlon club.
Unsurprisingly Patterson displayed power and athletic ability way beyond what would usually be expected of a novice, although her bike handling remained raw.
During a club training week in Spain she crashed into a concrete ditch, sustaining a bad concussion and losing most of the vision in her left eye.
To this day the vision remains largely peripheral and blurred, but Patterson has grown used to it.
“After that everyone was saying it would be difficult to cycle with bad vision in your left eye, but these things make you more determined,” she explains.
“It doesn’t really stop me. The only thing is that 3D perception can be a bit of an issue at times, but it’s something I’ve had to deal with and I’ve learned my own methods of dealing with it as I ride.”
She kept cycling and the more she got to grips with the technical side of the sport, the more the elite athlete within her was able to shine.
Last year Patterson claimed gold at the Irish National Time Trial Championship, in her first appearance at the event.
Even at that stage a return to the Commonwealths was only raised in a jokey manner, but encouraged by her coach she submitted an expression of interest.
The acceptance letter probably meant more than the one received 12 years ago.
“When I finished athletics I thought I was too old to start a new sport, or that I could start a new sport but I’d never get to the same level in it,” Patterson reflects.
“I never, ever thought it would happen. But it’s amazing that it has.”
