Jo Mersh looks back on her rollercoaster career
02/05/2024 14:17
It's 20 years since Jo Mersh landed the global medal she had dreamed of. It arrived after years of struggles and would prove to be her one and only major honour
“I'm sorry, I haven't thought about that for so long," says the woman on the screen, dabbing her teary eyes as her voice cracks with the emotion of a two-decade-old memory.
Even to Jo Fenn, her athletics heyday seems a lifetime time ago. For a start, she now goes by a different name, Mersh, after reverting to her maiden surname. She also lives more than 11,000 miles away in New Zealand and is a mother to two children. Unsurprisingly, her annus mirabilis of 2004 is not something that frequently occupies her thoughts.
But when she does recall the feeling of overcoming illness to surge down the home straight and claim world indoor 800m bronze almost exactly 20 years ago, it all comes flooding back.
"It wasn't gold, but it was the medal I'd spent so long dreaming about," she says, via video call from the other side of the world. "I was just so proud to do it for everyone, especially for Ayo [Falola, her coach at the time], who had worked so hard with me.
"It's choking me up to think about it. And Ayo passed away [in 2015] so it's even more special for me. He was such an amazing friend. We celebrated and went out that night for dinner, but I didn't have a drink. Ayo told me to have a glass of wine but I said I had to focus on the Olympics. I wish I'd had a bloody glass of wine with him.
"2004 was by far my biggest year. Then not much happened after that."
Jo Mersh (Mark Shearman)
To athletics fans of a certain vintage, the name Jo Fenn will doubtless prompt recognition, likely swiftly followed by wonder at what fate befell a British middle-distance star whose flame seemed to flicker all too briefly.
Five months after making it on to the world indoor podium – where she claimed the only senior international medal of her career – Mersh competed in the Olympic 800m semi-finals. Her trajectory seemed only to be heading in one direction. And then it wasn't.
She would only complete two more 800m races: one a few weeks later at the prestigious World Athletics Final in Monaco, and another in Loughborough in 2008 following a tumultuous four years, where she could only manage a time 10 seconds slower than she used to be capable of.
As is so often the case, injuries were to blame. But to focus only on those that ended her career is to neglect the barriers she had to overcome at the start to even make it anywhere near the top in the sport; the astounding dedication when most people would have given up.
After retiring, Mersh would go into schools and talk to young pupils about her career. She would ask anyone to raise their hand if they were seven years old. "I had to wait your entire life to realise my dream," she would tell them.
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A talented athlete in her youth, Mersh was ostensibly injured from the age of 17 to 24. The main problem was shin splints, which required three operations. When her friends would go out partying, she would remain at home on crutches desperately plotting a route back to competitive running.
"I was totally broken for such a long time," she says. "But I really wanted it so bad.
"It sounds ridiculous but I just felt that my story hadn't really begun as an athlete. I just loved running and pushing myself, and the fact I wasn't able to push myself for seven years meant I wanted to get back to it to see where it would lead.
"It was really hard and I had to be super resilient. Seven years is a long time."
Eventually, through sheer strong will, she strung a couple of consistent winters together and qualified to represent Britain for the first time at the World Indoor Championships in 2001, by which time she was 26. The following years brought faster times and appearances at the Commonwealth Games, European Championships and World Championships.
Then that world indoor bronze of 2004, which came after an illness-enforced late change of tactics that meant she sat in last place at the bell. Her fast finish passed all bar gold medallist Maria Mutola and Jolanda Ceplak, who took silver, and earned her a personal best of 1:59.50.
Just as she reached true global standard, Mersh was forced to face similar physical distress to that which delayed the start of her senior running career. This time it spelled the end.
Torn knee cartilage while at a training camp in South Africa in early 2005 required surgery and she was later troubled by a large uterine fibroid that needed removal. The breakdown of her marriage meant she had further troubles off the track.
A move to Switzerland and an attempted step up in distance to 1500m failed to yield results and when Achilles problems flared she knew any hope of qualifying for the 2008 Olympics was fanciful. "I wasn't ready to retire, but my body was," she says.
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During periods working for UK Athletics' marketing team, modelling, mentoring and public speaking, Mersh met a New Zealander and the pair soon started a family before moving to Auckland in 2018.
Although she now works in marketing for a supplement company, she says "the track is still my happy place", and she sits on the Athletics New Zealand selection panel for this year's Olympics. After turning down the chance to appear on the BBC singing competition Fame Academy because recording dates clashed with the 2003 World Championships, music remains a major outlet.
"I feel really lucky to have had a chapter in my life as a professional athlete, even if it was just for a short while," she says. "My dream at 14 was to go to the Olympics and I reached that pinnacle."
She regrets nothing. Except perhaps turning down that celebratory glass of wine. That's the one thing she would definitely change.
» This article first appeared in the March issue of AW magazine, which you can buy here
The post Jo Mersh looks back on her rollercoaster career appeared first on AW.
